Centre Island, New York

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Centre Island is a 605 acre peninsula with over four miles of coast line bordered by Cold Spring Harbor, Oyster Bay Harbor, and Long Island Sound. Originally called “Hog Island” after a 17th century cartographer, the scythe-shaped peninsula was for centuries separated from the mainland at flood tide until the early part of the 20th century when the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club underwrote improvements to the causeway.

The first Europeans, both Dutch and English, arrived in the early 17th Century and negotiated sales of the island with the Matinecock Indians who had been hunting and gathering in the area for several thousand years. In 1635, Charles I (king of England) gave all of Long Island to William, Earl of Sterling who on the 18th of June 1639 sold two necks of land at Oyster Bay, one to the East and one to the West (“Hog Island” now “Centre Island”) to Mathew Sunderland for 10 shillings. The Matinecock Sachems sold the island to Cornelius van Raynen, Govert Lokermans, and Jacobus Bucker in 1650. Negotiation of the conflicting claims began in 1664 and was finally resolved two years later through the purchase of the Island by the Town of Oyster Bay.

Joseph Ludlam purchased much of Hog Island from the town and settled his family there about 1680. He died in 1698 and is interred there in the family burying ground. Anthony Wright also purchased tracts of land there leaving it to members of his family and by purchase and descent to descendants in the Underhill, Crabbe, Wright, Weeks and Townsend families. Wright, Townsend, Underhill and Ludlam descendants were the main landholders on the island until April 13th, 1743 when Thomas Smith, son of Jacob and Freeelove Jones Smith of Herricks, purchased about 200 acres on the South end of the island. Smith moved there in 1753.

Thomas Smith, well on his way to becoming a very wealthy man before America declared independence, was engaged in farming and shipping. Smith held the title granted by the British before the revolution of Kings Justice for Oyster Bay, and patriot raiding parties unsuccessfully pursued his capture during the war. At about 12 o'clock March 3, 1778, seven patriots lead by William Scudder at the direction of General Washington were captured by the British while crossing Lloyd's Neck. According to Scudder's confession, he went to Hog Island with a party to capture Squire Smith but missed him as Smith had fled. Respect for Smith in the community was such that although having been a Royalist he was able to return after the revolution to resume his position as Justice. Upon his death the profits of Smith's labors up to and during the revolutionary period could be seen in the bequests in his will made in cash, about $25,000 and the farm lands he owned.

Smith family descendants lived on the island at their ancestral homestead “Upper Orchard” until 1897 when it burned. A new home was built on the site and Smith descendants continued to reside on the island until the 1990’s.

From the 1820’s through the 1840’s there were references to “Centre Island” in local documents and the new name replaced the old on a somewhat permanent basis around 1840. During the 18th and 19th centuries the chief occupation of residents was farming. A small brick works had existed on the island as far back as the 17th century. Toward the middle of the 19th century this brick works expanded, becoming a large commercial business with a quarry, kiln, warehouses and docks on the southwest point of the island.

In 1871 the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club built a small club house on a site next to the deep sheltered harbor to the east (current Junior Club House). To accommodate an expanding membership Seawanhaka built their new clubhouse (the current building) in 1891. The club made several purchases of land totalling about 80 acres which were held in trust by the Centre Island Improvement Association. These were later sold to club members who quickly established themselves in large summer homes there. The influx of wealthy yachtsman and the failure of the the brick works brought an end to brick making on the island in the early 1900’s. It was at about this time that the Smith family descendants began to sell off their interests in the 200 acres south of Seawanhaka.

The population of the island remained under 30 households until after World War I when development schemes to break up larger tracts into lots for small beach houses and cabanas precipitated the incorporation of the island as a village, a process started in 1917 and successfully completed in 1926. Through the 1930’s the population remained about 30 households, and their servants who outnumbered the home owners by a ratio of about 10 to 1. After World War II several of the larger estates were razed and subdivision into smaller lots of between 3 and 15 acres began. In the latter half of the 20th century a rapid increase in building took place with the development of over 80 new houses during the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.

Centre Island today retains much of its rural charm, with few houses visible from the road, no street signs and little traffic. With large tracts of undeveloped land, the island is the regular home for the Red Fox, Osprey, Eastern Screech Owl, Great Horned Owl and Belted Kingfisher among others. Driving onto the island visitors can’t help but fall for the charms of this quiet rural enclave where time seems to have stood still under the spell of the sunlight reflected through the trees from the surrounding bay.

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