Huntington Expands, Renames Sammis Street Historic District

HUNTINGTON, NY — The Sammis Street Historic District was expanded and renamed following a Huntington Town Board vote last week.

The district was renamed the South Village Historic District, as the enlarged district will take in houses on several streets in the neighborhood — just not those on Sammis Street, said Robert Hughes, the Town of Huntington historian.

The historic district designation allows the township to preserve the character of the area.

"Huntington is blessed with many historic areas and without protection, they run the risk of losing their historic character by either demolition of individual buildings or inappropriate changes," Hughes told Patch.

The South Village Historic District now includes houses on Fairview and Oakland streets and Nassau and Myrtle avenues in addition to Sammis Street.

The houses reflect the popular architectural styles of the early 1900s and reflect Huntington’s "progress from conservative building styles common here in earlier periods to the adoption of styles popular across the country," the town said.

The land that became the original historic district was purchased in 1858 by Frederick G. Sammis in two separate transactions, according to the Town of Huntington. Sammis acquired a 33-acre parcel along New York Avenue from Andrew Denniston on March 14, 1853. Four months later, he bought an additional 25 acres of woodland along Nassau Road from Samuel and William Van Wyck.

Sammis, a retired carriage maker, recouped the purchase price of the woodland by cutting and selling the timber. The rest of the land was used for farming. Shortly before the Civil War,
he opened a new road from New York Avenue to Nassau Road, which he called Fairview Street, and
subdivided the north side of the street into building lots. The first lot sold was on the southwest corner of Nassau Road and Fairview Street — three acres sold to Hiram P. Crozier in 1861.

Sammis died in 1892. His two sons, George A. Sammis and Frederick B. Sammis, inherited the land.

The Crozier house was moved closer to the road in 1924 and now stands on Fairview Street.

An 1860 map of Huntington village shows the north side of Fairview Street divided into building lots. By 1873, houses had been built on most of those lots.