Vail House

214 Roanoke Avenue

c. 1850

Narrator: Lucy Hallock (1887-1974), voiced by Kellyann Imeidopf

Welcome to the Vail House. I am Lucy Hallock. Back in 1928, I rented this fine old house and founded Riverhead’s first hospital. I called it a “sanatarium” –

The Riverhead Rest Home Sanatarium.

I was another of Riverhead’s amazing women. I was the daughter of a Jamesport carpenter, but I became a trained nurse and rose to the position of assistant superintendent of Nassau County Hospital. That was one of the leading hospitals on the Island at the time. Later it became Winthrop and now it is NYU Langone – Long Island.

After a distinguished career in nursing, which included being superintendent of a hospital in Maine, I came back to my hometown in 1928 and founded the sanatarium here and ran it with my sister Edith.

I am told that a prominent Riverhead merchant and sea captain named Vail built this house about 1850. That’s why we call it the Vail House. Like so many others in that time period, it is in the Italian style.

Look at those Tuscan windows on the second floor – that’s what architects call round-top windows butted next to each other. Doesn’t it remind you of something you might see in Tuscany?

Also notice the unusual curlicue ornaments above the cornice returns of the front gable and the beautiful original front doors.

And look at the way the frame of the round-top window in the attic flares out at the bottom. That’s called a battered window and is also supposed to be Italian. But who knows? I’ve never been to Italy, so I really can’t tell you. But I did love this house.

The fine old house originally stood on the corner of Second Street, but in 1928 the Odd Fellows bought the property and the house to the south end of the lot to make way for their new lodge – that big brick building just to the left.

The Riverhead Sanatarium wasn’t a full hospital. Rather it was a sort of lying-in hospital where women went to give birth before a more complete hospital was built. It was also a place to for long-term recovery. Indeed, I often called it the Sanatarium and Rest Home, and always emphasized how restful it was. I was also very proud of the quality of the food – something you don’t hear about in hospitals today.

Like so many talented women of my generation, I never married. Hard to fit a man into a professional life like mine.

The Sanatarium continued to operate into the 1950s, even after Riverhead finally acquired a real hospital.