'Taking Care of Business' traces bygone industry and commerce





	Inside the Port Jefferson Barber Shop, East Main Street. (click for larger version)

November 11, 2009 | 03:32 PM
Enjoy a sundae at Jacob Mueller's Ice Cream Parlor, buy a cake at the Main Street Bakery, or rent a rowboat at Seth Worth's marina. Watch as N.W. Davis drills a well, John W. Brown drives a bus, or James Anderson operates a loom at the Wilson Lace Mill.

You can see all of this and more at the Port Jefferson Village Center where 90 enlarged photographs tracing the history of industry and commerce in bygone Port Jefferson are on display now through Dec. 31.

The exhibit, "Taking Care of Business," includes rare views of the Port Jefferson Amusement Company, second Bayles Chandlery, O.S. Clagett Steam Laundry, Port Jefferson Electric Light Company, Unit Brick manufacturing plant and Crystal Fountain.

Vintage images of the Port Jefferson Barber Shop, Dreyer and McDermott's dry goods store, A.N. Randall's Maxwell auto dealership, Charles E. Miller's grocery, the Suwasset Oyster Company, Platt's Harness Shop and the F.F. Darling & Son general store are featured.

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There are also shots of Al's Ten Pin Inn, the Boulton Finishing Company, E.H. Rogers' Feed and Grain, the Dyett Sand-Lime Brick Company, the offices of the Port Jefferson Echo, Frank J. Leonard's Plumbing Shop, Newcomb's Garage and the L.H. Davis Ice Plant.

The earliest photo on display shows Bryant D. Norton's boot, shoe and hat shop on East Main Street. W.M. Jenkins and Havens Wood, who established a pioneer Port Jefferson studio in 1875, took the ferrotype.

Paper ephemera round out the exhibit, including a stock certificate from the Smithtown and Port Jefferson Rail Road Company, currency from the First National Bank of Port Jefferson and a poster from the F.M. Wilson Sail Loft.

There is also an advertisement from Coles and Bentley Carriage Manufacturers, an 1877 invoice from Jacob Willse's Coal and Wood and the 1908 By-Laws of the Port Jefferson Business Men's Association, the forerunner of today's Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce.

The photos are from the collections of Kenneth Brady, Barbara Brundage, Fran Child, Raymond Howell, Thomas Hummel, the Incorporated Village of Port Jefferson and William Leonard.

Other contributors include James McNamara, the Port Jefferson Fire Department, the Port Jefferson Historical Society, James Rhatigan, Chris Ryon, Richard Solo and Donald Spence.

The images were enhanced, printed and catalogued at the Port Jefferson Digital Archive by Brady, who is spearheading the photo preservation project. Over 18,000 images have been processed since the Village Center opened in November 2005.

The exhibit is sponsored by the Parks and Recreation Department of the Incorporated Village of Port Jefferson and the Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council.

The Port Jefferson Village Center is located at 101A East Broadway and is open seven days a week, except holidays, from 9 am to 9 pm. Admission is free.

Call 802-2165 for additional information.

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