Riverhead looks to save historic building that was one of Long Island’s first power plants

Local residents and town officials are hoping to convince the Long Island Power Authority and its contractor PSEG-Long Island to postpone the planned demolition of a historic building on the Peconic River where one of the first electric power plants on Long Island once operated.

On the West Main Street site was a plant that for 34 years, from 1888 to 1922, provided electricity for street lighting, homes and businesses in Riverhead and beyond. The plant was first powered by water wheels and then by steam engines.

The property on the river where the plant operated had previously been the site of a water-powered woolen mill operated by brothers John and Henry Perkins. 

Six years after Thomas Edison built the country’s first electric generating plant in New York City in 1882, the brothers installed a dynamo, driven by one of their water wheels at the mill. They formed the Perkins Electric Company in 1888 —  the second electric generating company on Long Island, established one year after the Greenport Power and Light Company.

Initially, the Perkins generator provided electricity for the woolen mill and several nearby homes, according to “Riverhead: The Halcyon Years,” by Thomas Stark. 

In 1893, the Perkins Electric Company became the Riverhead Electric Light Company and expanded its operations. In 1897, the company built the brick building that stands today on the south side of West Main Street — roughly opposite another, more familiar local landmark, Snowflake Ice Cream — to house a 150-horsepower steam engine and two dynamos.

In 1910, the Riverhead Electric Light Company merged with a second, competing electric company then operating a water- and steam-powered generator on the Peconic River, the Hallet Light and Power Company. The merged entity continued to operate as the Riverhead Electric Light Company. 

In 1911, the Riverhead Electric Light Company installed a new, more powerful steam engine and generator at the West Main Street site, known as the Upper Mills plant, and in June of that year, for the first time, there was 24-hour electric service in Riverhead, powering street lights, homes and businesses in the hamlet. The Riverhead Electric Light Company in June 1911 expanded to provide power to Westhampton Beach from the Upper Mills plant. By 1920, the electric company had extended its lines to serve customers in Aquebogue, Jamesport and Northville, Stark wrote.

LILCO bought Riverhead Electric Co. in 1922

In 1922, the expanding Long Island Lighting Company purchased the assets of the Riverhead Electric Light Company, the Riverhead system was placed on the LILCO grid and steam generation at the Upper Mills plant was discontinued.

LILCO continued to use the building for various purposes after the generator was shut down, but it has not been used for a long time and, over time, has fallen into a state of disrepair, Landmarks Preservation Commission Chairperson Richard Wines told the Riverhead Town Board at its work session Thursday.

PSEG-Long Island, which since 2014 is the contractor operating the Long Island Power Authority’s electric system, has notified the town it is planning to demolish the 127-year-old building as soon as early next month. 

Company representatives have told town officials that the roof of the building is in danger of collapse and the entire structure presents a hazard. 

‘A very important part of Riverhead history’

The Landmarks Preservation Commission and a group of local residents, led by former Council Member George Bartunek, are opposed to the demolition and are asking the town to get LIPA/PSEG to delay the action for nine months to a year — with the hope of raise funds through grants to rehabilitate the historic building and repurpose it for some public use.

Town Historian Georgette Case in a letter dated Nov. 2, 2022, said she she supports preservation of the building, which she said the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities in 1977 nominated the building for inclusion in its catalogue of historic buildings.

The building is “obviously not  in great shape,” Wines told the board Thursday, reviewing photos of the exterior. But, he said, “it has a lot of historic significance” and is “a great historic resource for the town.”

Once rehabilitated, it could be put to some public use that could, at the same time, commemorate “this really important part of Riverhead’s history,” Wines said. 

“It seems like something that is definitely worth preserving and worth keeping for the future and a very important part of Riverhead history,” Wines said.

Hubbard: Town doesn’t have money to buy or preserve site

The big issue in terms of accomplishing that goal is funding, Supervisor Tim Hubbard said Thursday. 

“The town does not have money to buy this property or preserve this property or put money into it,” Hubbard said.  

The utility, which owns the property, has sent its engineers to look at the building, Hubbard said.  “And they say it’s in a state of disrepair.” 

The supervisor read from a communication to the town from the utility. “It says ‘The building is unsafe, posing a risk and liability to PSEG Long Island, LIPA and the larger Riverhead community. The demolition of the building mitigates any risk for unauthorized access, trespass, and or encroachment on the property by third parties.’ Demolition is scheduled to begin in early February 2024. And they have no plans to replace the building and said they’ll clean up the corner of the property after the building is removed and no replacement structure is planned,” Hubbard said. 

“So that’s where we’re at. That’s their plans for the property. So it’s kind of imminent. They’re slating early February for demolition. So we need to put our thinking hats on and figure out what or If anything can be done here,  to preserve it, or whether it’s just going to be a sad piece of history that leaves us,” the supervisor said. 

Officials: Plan to demolish building in February was unexpected

Town officials said until this week, they were unaware that demolition was imminent. 

“I just find it very disingenuous of PSEG to sit here and say the building’s in disrepair, the property is in disrepair. Well, that’s due to their own neglect,” Council Member Denise Merrifield said. “They own that property, and they didn’t do anything to help maintain it in any way. So I find it very disingenuous to say because it’s in the state now we have to tear it down when they caused that,” she said. Merrifield questioned whether the town could start legal action to prevent the demolition and require the company to repair the building. 

Council Member Bob Kern, who said he’s been working on the issue of the building’s condition with Wines and Bartunek and LIPA/PSEG for at least four months, said the company has “been very, very good about working with us and trying to see if that building was salvageable.” 

“This is their determination at this point,” Kern continued. “And they own that land and I have to respect their rights to that land.”

At the board’s request and with LIPA/PSEG’s permission, the town engineers went on the site this week to look at the structure. They did not have access to the interior, Town Engineer Drew Dillingham said. They did not find any major structural problems on the exterior, other than the roof and a separate structure added to the original building. 

Wines said the building has a slate roof. “From the outside that roof looks very intact,” he said.

Kern said PSEG informed him the roof was too unsafe to allow workers to clean it of debris.

Landmarks chair: LIPA/PSEG can be part of the solution

Wines pressed for LIPA/PSEG “to be part of the solution,” noting that the company funded “a major science center” at Jones Beach.

“I would think this would be an opportunity for a PSE&G or for LIPA… to do something nice out here on the East End,” Wines said. “And there would need to be another organization that would become an operating entity to do something in that building,” he said. 

“This is happening very quick,” Wines said. “At the very least, I think the first thing is we should ask PSE&G to simply delay, and allow the Town of Riverhead to see if there are some other solutions and other possible uses here and ways of working with them,” Wines said. 

“This could be some really good public relations for the company,” he said. “And it’s probably not a huge expenditure. It’s not a huge building. It’s only, I think, 30 by 40 feet…And because it was built to house a steam engine, it is very soundly built with thick brick walls and so forth. I haven’t seen the report on the roof. But replacing the roof on the building that size — even that wouldn’t be [cost-prohibitive].  So it’s a great thing for PSE&G to do,” Wines said. 

“We will reach out to them,” Hubbard said. “We will ask them and request nine months to a year, and we will certainly let you know what their answer is.”

One of two remaining buildings that used water power of Peconic

Bartunek said the Suffolk County Historical Society has a display featuring “all the different businesses and industries that developed along the river because of  power.”  Water power was why Riverhead developed as it did, Bartunek said. 

“There’s two buildings left of all the different businesses that were along the river. There’s only two buildings left — that’s the power station and the pump station down in Grangebel Park,” he said.

“I would like you to consider, first of all, if they were to knock that building down, I wonder if they’re going to even maintain the site any better than they’ve maintained it over the last 35 years,” Bartunek said. 

Until recently the building had broken windows. Then the town stepped in to require  the company to board the windows up pursuant to town code. Now that the windows are boarded up, Bartunek said, the building is secure.

He noted that LIPA/PSEG has not presented “a viable plan” for the use of the site and he questioned how the site could even be put to any productive use by the utility.  They only have about a half-acre to work with, he said. 

“So they’re really going to be very limited. And I’m certain that they’re not going to want to build anything on a half-acre of property. They just want to be done with this. This is the most expedient and careless approach to dealing with a building like this,” Bartunek said.

Hubbard said it’s understandable that the company would be concerned about liability if the structure is “somewhat unsafe” and someone gets in there and gets hurt.

“But there is also a huge historical factor that needs to be looked at,” the supervisor said. “And obviously, that’s what we’re doing here,” he said.

“It’s actually part of LILCO’s history too,” Wines noted. 

“We will reach out to them and ask for more time. There were some very valid points right here. If there is no imminent danger of the building collapsing, what’s your hurry to take it down? And they’re not going to use it for anything else by their own admission. So let’s see what we can do,” Hubbard said.