Lee Building

55-59 East Main St.

Narrator: Harry Lee (1872-1925, Republican Party Boss of Suffolk County); voiced by Tom Hughes

Hi, this is Harry Lee and we are standing in front of the Lee Building. It has a lot of history – but you have to look hard to see it all.

In 1903, with John Hagen as my partner, we started publishing a newspaper here called the County Review – that’s the ancestor of today’s News-Review. Our paper quickly became one of the largest weekly newspapers in the state.

Hagan also served as the town clerk, and almost managed to destroy all of the town’s records in 1909. There was no town hall, so he had his office here. One Friday evening he stayed late to work on election records. The electric company turned off their generators at 1 a.m., as was the practice back then, forcing Hagan to light his kerosene lamp to continue his work.

To his horror the lamp exploded in his hands. Fortunately, Hagan kept his cool and managed to shove all the town records into the safe and close the door, while the fire spread rapidly around him, destroying the Review’s office and printing plant behind.

The fact that the electric lights were off in the streets also hindered the arrival of the fire department, which had to prowl around in the darkness to find their way. Citizens immediately petitioned for all-night streetlights, which I am glad to say we still have here in Riverhead.

The Review quickly built a more modern brick building for its office and printing plant but it didn’t look anything like it does today – just the bottom floor of the right third of the building in front of you. The paper added a second floor and a large expansion to the east sometime before 1919.

If you walk around to the west side –along the alley – and the rear, you can still see the oldest parts of the building that belie its semi-industrial past as primarily a printing facility. Those brick arches over the windows were typical of many factory structures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In addition to being owner of the paper, I was also the leader of the Suffolk County Republican Party. Indeed, supporting the party was a main reason for founding the paper. I was a friend of senators, congressmen, justices and governors.

As county party boss, one of my favorite tactics was to send items to other newspapers in the county promoting our candidates. I attached a $10 bill to each item along with a request that it be published as a news piece rather than a paid political advertisement. As an opposition paper snidely remarked after discovering this ruse, apparently ten dollars was the amount required for editors to swallow their scruples about such deceptions.

In the 1930s we added on again and created the front façade you see today. Those projecting bays on the second floor are called “Oriel Windows” – but not because they hang up there like an oriel’s nest. Rather, the word derives from the Latin word oriolum, both meaning "gallery."

As befitted a party boss that I was, I lived in a big mansion on East Main Street surrounded by beautiful gardens. In 1925 I was suddenly stricken by a heart attack in my beloved flower garden at age 52 and died a few minutes later. All the leading politicians of the county attended my funeral. Would you believe my house is now a parking lot?