Houses with a View of History

With the holiday season officially under way, Huntington residents and visitors will find a long list of festive events to stay busy from now until the end of the year. One of the most highly anticipated is The Annual Holiday House Tour which is scheduled for Dec.5 this year.

Each year, the Historical Society arranges tours of local residences that date from Colonial times. The owners open their homes as a service to the community to demonstrate lifestyles throughout our country's history. This year's houses were chosen to showcase different eras of home building throughout Huntington history. From noon until 4 p.m., tour five local historical homes which were built over a period of 350 years since the first settlement of Huntington.

The 1895 Alling House was originally built as a summer home for Alling, a New Your City financier from East Orange, NJ. By 1900 the house belonged to J. T. Robb and the cottage became a summer rental for the first two decades of the 20th Century. Although the kitchen and family room have been added, the house retains its original integrity and grandeur from the late 19th Century.

The 1895 Robb House was the summer home of J. T. Robb, an executive with the Pennsylvania Railroad. Although the kitchen and family rooms have been added to the east side of the house and rooms on the second floor were reconfigured, the house retains its intended stateliness of design from the end of the 19th Century.

The 1928 Cook House is a stylish English Tudor that implemented many aspects of the craftsmen style employed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The inside of this home has been meticulously restored by the present owners, maintaining and/or replicating many of the original features in the house.

The 1750 Fleet House was the home of Thomas Fleet, an English sea captain, who settled in the area known today as Fleet's Cove. Descendants of the Fleet family owned the house well into the 20th Century. A large late 18th Century barn associated with this house still exists in the area and has been converted into a house.

The 1875 Bunce House was built by Captain Joseph Titus Bunce Jr..  His father, Captain Joseph Titus Bunce Sr. raised his family in the earlier 18th century house which stands just to the north of this property.  Both father and son were sea captains working out of Cold Spring Harbor.  The house was lived in by descendants of the Bunce family until 1997.  Vacant for 12 years, it was bought in 2009,  restored in 2010 and maintains much of its 19th century charm.

The Conklin House, which will also be open for tours, will act as headquarters for the event and refreshments will be served in the charming Conklin Barn.

Tickets are $35 and ticket holders are automatically entered into a raffle for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to Prime Restaurant. Call 631-427-7045 for tickets or more information.