UPDATE: SCHS -- Photo of the Week / July 18, 2020 -- DOVE / TORR COTTAGE, Centerport

Photo of the Week

FROM THE SCHS LIBRARY ARCHIVES

“How shall we know it is us without our past?”
– John Steinbeck

Dove / Torr Cottage, Centerport

by Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Librarian

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Cottage on Banks of Titus Mill Pond, Centerport, c. 1904, by Hal B. Fullerton. (Image from the Harry T. Tuthill Fullerton Collection of the Suffolk County Historical Society Library Archives. Copyright © Suffolk County Historical Society. All rights reserved.) [NOTE: to view Fullerton photograph, please visit SCHS website.]

Interestingly, the cottage depicted on the pond in this 1904 photograph by noted Long Island photographer Hal B. Fullerton would later become the home of American artists Arthur Dove and Helen Torr. Earlier (1880-1890) the cottage had been used as a post office and a general store. The Dove/Torr Cottage, as it was later known, was home to the renowned American modernist Arthur Dove, who lived in Huntington with his wife, the artist Helen Torr, from 1924 to 1946. For many of these years, they lived aboard their 42-foot yawl in Huntington Harbor. In 1938, the couple purchased this cottage, where they lived for the rest of their lives.

In 1998, the Heckscher Museum of Art acquired the Dove/Torr Cottage, and two years later the cottage was one of only twenty historic artist sites in the nation to be accepted into the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program administered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. For more information about the historic Dove/Torr Cottage, check out the Heckscher’s information page here.

The Suffolk County Historical Society Urgently Needs Your Help!

Let’s consider the value of preserving our local history versus the cost of a cup of coffee…. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought much of our donation and grant-based funding to a halt, and we desperately need your help to survive these challenging times. For little more than the cost of a cup of coffee you can help support the rich history of Suffolk County.

WE are YOUR history preserved! Founded in 1886, some 134 years ago, and recognized as a National Landmark, the Suffolk County Historical Society Museum & Library Archives serves over 1.5 million county residents and more than 20,000 researchers, members, subscribers, and guests annually. We are Suffolk County’s primary historic research center and museum. Our collections represent the nearly 400-year history of our area and include museum artifacts, genealogies, town records, account books, diaries, photographs, letters, postcards, maps and atlases, deeds, wills, early militia records, civil war records, and so much more!

Please help us continue to serve the community as we have done for 134 years. We appreciate any donation you can spare, no matter how small. Thank you for your support!

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