Downtown Riverhead Historic Trail
Explore Riverhead’s rich history by walking the Downtown Historic Trail – either with your feet on the ground or virtually on your computer or smart phone. With enthusiastic support from the Town Board and the BID, the Landmarks Preservation Commission has created this Historic Tail for Downtown Riverhead. At each stop, you will hear a first-person narration by an historic character associated with that place and see archival images. Narrators include merchants and bankers, their wives or children and people who worked here. You will meet Riverhead characters, such as “Judge” Taft at his candy store, Tammany Hall member J.J. Sullivan at his hotel or Republican county boss Harry Lee. You will meet Syrena Stackpole, the first woman to hold public office in Riverhead. You will meet the architects who designed some of the town’s most impressive buildings like the Methodist church or the Suffolk County Historical Society . . . and the flamboyant red-haired Englishman who completed the First Congregational Church. You will meet recent arrivals such as Lulu Brown, the young Black woman from Virginia who worked as a maid in one of the grand houses on Griffing Avenue in 1910; Rose Romanski, a young Polish woman working in the Dr. Johnson House on East Main; and Greek-born Tzanos Moustaka who started the Riverhead Grill. These and many other colorful characters with a connection downtown are played by local actors and actresses – with occasional appearances by members of the Riverhead Town Board. Enjoy the trail!
Scroll down for a map
Visitors can walk the Downtown Riverhead Historic Trail on the street using their smart phones to access QR codes at each stop. The trail begins at the intersection of Main Street and Roanoke Avenue and ends at the Suffolk County Historical Society. You can walk the trail virtually by clicking on the stops on this list or the map below.
Acknowledgements
The Riverhead Landmarks Preservation Commission thanks the following for appearing as narrators on the Downtown Historic Trail:
Yvette Aguiar
Orlesha Banks
Frank Beyrodt
Peter Blasl
Terry Brockbank
Matt Chizever
Denise Civilette
Cindy Clifford
Lorene Custer
Arlene Doroska
James Evans
Nancy Gilbert
Jeff Greenberger
Tim Hubbard
Tom Hughes
Kellyann Imeidopf
Nate Kalich
Mary Kalich
Bob Kaplan
Catherine Kent
Rusty Kransky
Yvonne Langhorn
Jenifer Maxson
Jan McGoey
Charlie McGoey
Anthony Meras
Ken O'Brien
Colin Palmer
Kenneth Rothwell
Ellen Talmage
Richard Wines
The Landmarks Preservation Commission thanks the following for their assistance in researching, writing and producing the Downtown Historic Trail, along with the many Riverheaders who responded to our request for memories on the Facebook site “Remembering Riverhead.”
Jason Blizzard, Riverhead GIS Administrator
Georgette Case, Riverhead Town Historian
Denise Civiletti, Riverhead Local
Michaela Gaaserud, Frameless Technologies
Aaron Schwartzbard, Frameless Technologies
Jason Dangle, Frameless Technologies
Peter Lucas, Riverhead Landmarks Preservation Commission
Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Research Librarian, Suffolk County Historical Society
Jim Provencher, Local History Coordinator, Riverhead Free Library
Stephen Shauger, Riverhead Business Improvement District
Dawn Thomas, Director, Riverhead Community Development
Kristy Verity, Riverhead Business Improvement District
Richard Wines, Riverhead Landmarks Preservation Commission
Funding for the Downtown Historic Trail was provided by a grant from the Suffolk County Downtown Revitalization Committee and facilitated by County Legislator Al Krupski.