Letters: John Kennedy - The People's Legislator

Dear Community Member:

I have been privileged over the past seven + years to have worked with dedicated public officials in our school boards, town, county, state and federal government and agencies with a multitude of community issues including the Iroquois Natural Gas Pipeline originally proposed through our residential neighborhoods, schools, youth athletic fields, environmentally sensitive areas and historic landmarks that would have had a major impact on many of us. With the cooperation and support of our public officials, civic associations, schools, LIPA and local citizens, like yourself, we succeeded in having the then-proposed route away from our direct communities.

One of the public officials that had spent endless hours of support, research, advocacy and dedication has been Legislator John M. Kennedy, Jr. In addition to his dedication and hard work ethic for the people, he has the heart for the community. During his tenure, he continues to represent us as our Long Island utility infrastructure remains to be a challenge for us.

Legislator John M. Kennedy, Jr. consistently fights for us with ongoing and numerous civic issues that have an effect on us every day. He has always been there to support and defend our 12^th Legislative District. The hard work and dedication of him and his team are supporting us if they are in knee high water cleaning up the Nissequogue River, working until 11pm at night researching the issues or reaching out on a non-partisan basis to the other Suffolk County Legislators and County Executive to do the right thing for the Suffolk County residents. 

Legislator John M. Kennedy, Jr. is a man of:

• Leadership, including as Suffolk County Legislature Minority Leader.
• Integrity
• Experience
• Dedication
• Heart for his constituents

I strongly support his candidacy for re-election as Legislator to the 12^th Legislative District on any political party affiliation.

Although I am a Registered Republican, I recommend John M. Kennedy, Jr. on a non-partisan basis as I consider him the People’s Legislator.

Please vote and re-elect Legislator John M. Kennedy, Jr.

Please Vote For John M. Kennedy, Jr. on Republican, Conservative or Independence Lines.

Sincerely,

Paul E. Borowski

Hauppauge Resident

Rotarians And Kings Park Community "Stuff The Tesla" For Food Pantry

Commack - Kings Park Rotary Club and the Kings Park community teamed up with Key Food in Kings Park on a food drive for the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry at St. Joseph’s church.  The challenge was to “Stuff the Tesla” with items needed most by the food pantry. The list included tooth paste, soap, shampoo, toilet paper, paper towels, deodorant etc., as well as the food items. The response from the Kings Park community was overwhelming. Rotarians are happy to say the Tesla’s trunk, frunk and back seat were completely filled and there was an overflow. 

The Tesla Model S - is an all electric car that accommodates five adults with storage capacity in both the rear and front (frunk) of the vehicle. This allowed for a lot of room to accomodate the donations which kept coming throughout the day. Many Kings Park residents took time to check out the all-electric vehicle as they helped to stuff the Tesla. 

St.Vincent de Paul volunteers Adele and Kathy with Rotarian Joanne DavisThe highlight of this event was the generosity of the Kings Park community as well as the commitment of Commack-Kings Park Rotarians and  St. Vincent de Paul Society to helping provide for those in need.

The St. Vincent de Paul food pantry is located at St. Josephs Church on Church Street. Donations are welcomed throughout the year. The Commack-Kings Park Rotary Club meets at the Bonwit Inn in Commack every Tuesday at 12:15.

News Of Long Ago - "Charles Stewart Butler's Moment In The Sun As Supervisor Of Smithtown, 1924-25"

News of Long Ago by Bradley Harris, Smithtown Historian

(I have been writing about the descendants of Judge John Lawrence Smith and the contributions they made to Smithtown’s history.  Last week I wrote about another grandson of the Judge, Charles Stewart Butler, the owner of Branglebrink Farm in St. James, who was elected Supervisor of the Town of Smithtown in 1923.  This article deals with the impact that Charles Butler had upon Smithtown once he became Supervisor.)

“Charles Stewart Butler’s moment in the sun as Supervisor of Smithtown, 1924-25….”

  The two years that Charles Butler served as Supervisor of Smithtown were marked by a number of progressive changes in the operation of Smithtown’s government.  Harry D. Sleight, the historian who compiled Town Records of the Town of Smithtown for the years 1835 to 1929, described the years 1924 and 1925,  when Charles Butler served as Supervisor,  as “a busy two years.”  He noted that Smithtown in the preceding 25 years of its history had been “like a snowball accumulating snow as it progressed, rolled up in that period, a greater population, and greater financial resources, than possible in the past centuries of slow plodding progress.”  And when Charles Butler came into the office of Supervisor, he determined that he was going to use those resources and continue to implement and build on the changes that had been initiated during Charles Miller’s term as Supervisor from 1920 to 1923.  Many of these changes were needed, but they did not meet with universal approval, and when the changes were made, many voters were alienated and this ultimately led to the demise of Charles S. Butler’s political career. 

During Charles Butler’s term as Supervisor, Republicans enjoyed a majority on the Town Board and they followed the Supervisor’s leadership when it came to dealing with controversial issues.   The proposal of purchasing land for a town dump had been submitted by the previous Supervisor, Charles Miller, and it came to fruition during Charles Butler’s administration.  Five acres of land off Middle Country Road was purchased from Mrs. Adeline B. Nooy for $1,000 and a dump site was established in St. James.  The Town Board then legislated controls on the disposal of garbage.  The Superintendent of Highways was given new status, an improved salary, a new office with office furniture, and a Roads Department that was provided with new motorized equipment so that town roads could be improved and paved.  The Town Board even approved the purchase of a new “motor cars” for Town Officers to use and even agreed to purchase a new car for the Highway Superintendent’s use.  Traffic problems were first addressed and beacon lights and silent policemen were installed on Main Street at several intersections.  At busier intersections, electric traffic signals were installed to handle the flow of traffic.  Parking regulations were created, traffic signs were erected, and part-time police officers on motorcycles were employed to enforce the traffic laws.  Sidewalks and paths were built, street lights were installed in Smithtown Branch, and eventually St. James and Kings Park had street lights installed as well.  Smithtown Branch was transformed from a little rural  village into a real town that even boasted a brand new public school building on New York Avenue, a school that housed an elementary school and a secondary school, grades K-12, all under one roof.  

The Town Board turned its attention to improving its beaches and parks, and improvements and repairs were made to the beach buildings.  The town beaches were so attractive and appealing that non- residents were attracted to them and the Town Board permitted non-residents to use them if they paid a $10 fee.  The fees collected helped finance other improvements.  The Town Board also accepted donations “from private individuals” for the cost of construction of a “five foot” wide “passenger bridge” that was erected “across the meadows to Sunkenmeadow Beach.”  In addition to all of these changes, the Town Board authorized the creation of the Kings Park Water Company and granted a “permit to apply for papers of incorporation.”  All of this happened in the short span of two years.  (Town Records of the Town of Smithtown, Harry S. Sleight, published by authority of the Town of Smithtown, 1930, pp. 657-659.)

This flurry of activity by the Town Board must have had a dramatic impact upon the community.  Many of the changes were highly visible.  They were also visible in the tax bills that the residents of the town now had to pay.  It must have seemed to many that Smithtown had suddenly been dragged into the 20^th century and changes had been wrought that residents didn’t like and it had them kicking and screaming.

The straw that broke the taxpayers’ backs seems to have come when the Town Board authorized the construction of a plank road on Long Beach.  The Smithtown Country and Beach Club, was an association of estate owners who had houses that surrounded St. James Harbor, and the estate owners had beach rights on Long Beach.  The estate owners’ beach front properties were located between the town parks of Long Beach and Little Africa.    The Country and Beach Club members were incensed by the flagrant disregard of their property rights by Smithtown residents who trooped across their property to get from Long Beach to Little Africa.  Cars kept getting stuck in the sand, and people kept interrupting the estate owners’ private beaches parties.  The Country and Beach Club asked that the Town Board construct a plank road across their property to connect the two parks and so stop the desecration of their beach front.  The Town Board decided to construct a plank road and accepted a $2,000 donation from the Club to begin construction of this road.  The Town Board added $1,000 from the Beach Fund and appointed Justice George Hodgkinson to oversee the construction of this roadway.

Almost as an afterthought, the Town Board decided to ask the voters for approval of this project  through a special proposition that they placed on the fall election ballot of 1925.  This issue became a hotly contested one in the election campaign in the fall of 1925.  Charles Butler sought a second term as Supervisor and faced a formidable opponent in E.H.L. Smith, a popular Democrat who had previously served eighteen years as Supervisor of Smithtown.  In addition to fielding a strong candidate, the Democrats lambasted the Republican Town Board for its spending and focused in on the issue of the plank road under construction on Long Beach.  The plank road became an election issue because Charles Butler and his brother Lawrence Butler were members of the Smithtown Country and Beach Club.  In fact their father had been the founder of this association and, as estate owners, the Butlers had property rights on Long Beach.  Democrats began to question the Town Board’s action in authorizing the construction of this roadway,  especially in light of the fact that the question of building the plank road at taxpayer’s expense had been proposed in 1923, and the proposition suggesting that taxpayers spend $5,000 to construct  a plank road at Long Beach had been  defeated.  

The outcome of the election in 1925 was predictable.  On November 5, 1925, when the votes were counted, Charles S. Butler lost his re-election bid for Supervisor by 336 votes and E.H.L. Smith became Supervisor.   And the proposition on the ballot calling for the authorization to spend $4,000 on the construction of 2300’ of plank road from “the end of the present road at Long Beach to the Town Park on said Long Beach” was once again defeated.  The hotly contested issue spilled over into other election races and Democrats were swept into office in practically every elected position in Smithtown.  Charles S. Butler had been given the gate by residents of Smithtown who were ranting and raving about the arrogance of wealthy estate owners who seemed determined to have a plank road built on Long Beach, at taxpayer’s expense, with or without the approval of the little people in town. 

It’s interesting to note that at one of the last meetings Charles Butler presided over as Supervisor on November 12, 1925, the Town Board authorized that “an additional sum of $1,000 be appropriated from beach funds to continue on with the plank road at Long Beach.”  And at his last meeting as Town Supervisor on December 22, 1925, a letter was received by the Town Board from “Messrs. Martin Taylor and Henry A. Stickney, in which they contribute Five Hundred Dollars toward the work of building a plank road on Long Beach.”  The Town Board accepted their gift and the plank road was completed with most of the cost of construction being paid for through private donations.  But the public perception that Supervisor Butler was spending tax dollars to have the road built for the wealthy members of the Country and Beach Club led many people to vote against him in the 1925 elections.

His defeat in the 1925 election must have soured Charles Butler on politics.  As far as I know, he never ran for elected office again.  When he left office, Charles Butler went back to work as a lawyer in New York City, but continued to live at Branglebrink Farm watching over the operation of the dairy which supplied milk to households throughout St. James, Stony Brook, Smithtown Branch, and Nesconset.   And he continued to play an active part in the life of the community, but that is a story that will have to wait until next week…. 

Op ED - Three Elephants In The Room, Sewers, a Blog and One Very Important Election

By - Maureen Rossi

The Elephant in the Room is an enormously insightful and informative blog written by Marci Bortman, Director of Conservation Programs for the The Nature Conservancy in Long Island.  In operation since 1951, the Conservancy’s primary goal is to protect ecologically important lands and waterways for both nature and people.   Bortman’s blog was about nitrogen pollution on Long Island.  The subject has been of much discussion as of late; it was brought front and center earlier this year by the Long Island Clean Water Partnership.   The group consists of environmental powerhouses like Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Group for the East End, Long Island Pine Barrens Society, and Bortman’s group The Nature Conservancy.  They joined forces to come up with viable solutions to the high levels of nitrogen in our waterways and to address the fact that it’s leaching into the water we drink.  They say Long Island needs updated water quality standards to reduce the amount of sewage pollution in our local waters and improve, upgrade and modernize existing sewer and septic systems. 

The second Elephant in the Room occupied the V.F.W. Hall in Kings Park on Wednesday October 23^rd when about sixty community members gathered for the Kings Park Chamber of Commerce Meet the Candidates Luncheon and the subject of sewers arose again and again.  One by one virtually every candidate spoke about the proposed sewer plans for Kings Park, some said it should have been included in the proposed 2014 budget, some said it can’t legally be included in that budget because it will serve only some of the population of Smithtown and must be voted on.  Some said it will take years, some said they believe the project could begin in the spring.  Some candidates were more optimistic than others.   President of the Kings Park Chamber Tony Tanzi is a businessman who’s been one of the leading voices calling for sewers in Kings Park.  However, his first concern is not the expansion of the business district; this father of four is seriously concerned about the drinking water that lies just beneath the ground.   His concern is valid; our aquifers are vulnerable to any and all substances that go into the ground.  Suffolk County has approximately 400,000 cesspools/septic tanks.    With only twenty-five percent of Suffolk County being served by sewer treatment facilities our drinking supply is something that should concern everyone and social science research done by  Bortman and her team at the Conservancy tell us that Long Islanders care deeply about the water they swim in, fish in, live by and drink.   However, that same study also showed that most people don’t know where their drinking water comes from, where the waste goes when they flush the toilet and that nitrogen from human waste, fertilizers and fossil fuels are the culprits polluting our bays and harbors.    

The Conservancy has been working tirelessly for years to restore estuaries; they acquired 13,500 acres of underwater land and transplanted over 7 million clams in over 100 sanctuaries on our Island.  They support the science and policy to protect and restore critical sea grass because we have the data and it tells us that nitrogen loading or excess nitrogen is the number one cause of marsh loss.  Marshes are breeding ground for mollusks which clean our water and critical to the environment.    With sea levels rising and super storms like last year’s Sandy pound our shores they have created another  precarious situation; over 15,000 of our septic systems on Long Island are presently in areas where the water table is less than five feet deep. 

What must be done to keep nitrogen out of our aquifers, our bays and estuaries?   The experts – the newly formed ecological dream team, The Long Island Clean Water Partnership make several recommendations; but sewers and updated waste treatment plants in Suffolk County would be a crucial start.  The good news is it looks like the Bellone administration is on board.   In April of this year County Executive Steven Bellone announced grant and loan applications for construction-ready municipal and private sewer infrastructure expansion projects with the county.    He says investing in sewers makes both environmental and economic sense.   He also feels sewer expansion projects are essential to creating jobs in Suffolk County in a sustainable way.    Adrienne Esposito is the Executive Director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment and she feels there are key locations where sewers are a necessity, not a luxury item.  The truth of the matter, from an economic standpoint, sewers sound like a luxury item for both Smithtown and cash-strapped Suffolk County.  Only $30 million in funding will be made available through Suffolk County’s Asset Stabilization Reserve Fund specifically for sewer expansion projects.   Our Town Board votes 5-0 earlier this year to pony up one million to begin the sewer process to show the county we are serious about the project and ready to act on the project.   However, the estimated cost for sewers in Kings Park is $20,000,000.  One million will come from Smithtown, the county grant would provide three million (if our project is approved), we will receive a three million dollar waiver because Kings Park already has a hookup and we won’t need to pay that fee but where does the other thirteen million come from?     

In order to ascertain the grant Smithtown applied for, a sewer project has to be consistent with one of many scenarios; the most applicable for the proposed Kings Park sewer system might be:  Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan (our downtown is close to our waterfront), project applicant demonstrates the ability to begin construction within 12-24 months of contract execution, project protects or improves the quality of drinking waters within groundwater-contributing area to public supply wells, areas served by private wells or improves the quality of nitrogen-sensitive water bodies.   Okay, I’m no scientist but last latter resonates greatly for our beautiful waterside community – a community that is all down-hill to our bay, our river and estuaries making it most susceptible to nitrogen run-off.   Clean drinking water just makes common sense; it’s incumbent for all of us to stand up and demand this.   Bortman’s blog tells us that nitrogen in some areas of Long Island are consistent with levels correlated with colon cancer, bladder cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  The scariest part of this data is that the levels are still below the federal safe drinking water standard.  I checked the Smithtown nitrogen levels, for 2013 we showed 2.0 – 3.3 mgl with the federal regulatory limited being 10 mgl.  Should we be concerned?  Maybe we need to go back five years and see if our nitrogen levels have risen, forgetting what federal regulatory limits are.   The Nature Conservancy says addressing nitrogen pollution and its underlying causes is by far the greatest challenge they’ve had to face since the inception of their organization.

Another one of the specifications for a sewer project to be deemed applicable by the county is: site and its proposed use has all of the following characteristics:  promotes to the maximum practical extend long term growth and benefit to Suffolk County, environmentally sustainability components, within a ½ mile to a rail transit hub, mixed use and housing diversity component and creates a place of interest or provides sewer connections for existing commercial or residential properties currently on septic/cesspools in area that do not conform to Article 6.    Okay that’s a mouthful but what words in that paragraph should we all be paying attention to?  Half mile to rail hub – yes that makes Kings Park a viable candidate, long-term growth to Suffolk County – yikes can we extrapolate here?   That’s the kind of statement than can make a community with over 500 acres of new state parkland in the center of it a little bit nervous.  Although it’s officially a park, anyone who is paying attention in Smithtown is concerned about what can and will possibly end up at the Nissequogue River State Park.   Creates a place of interest – well in all due respect Great Wizard of Sewers (whoever is behind the curtain), all Kings Park residents think Kings Park is a place of interest.

So what’s next?  How does the process happen?  David Flynn of the Smithtown Planning Department is one of the region’s greatest minds when it comes to planning and sewers.  He tells The Messenger that grants go through a consolidated funding application (CFA) and head onto one of ten regional economic development councils in the state.  We have our own for Long Island.   Then our application is given a numerical score based on certain criteria, we are told there are on hundred applications and only twenty will be chosen.  Legislator John Kennedy has been championing sewers for downtown areas in Smithtown since 2005.  He worked closely with neighboring Smithtown Legislator Lynne Nowick in calling for a study and has had numerous conversations with the past and Present County Executive on the hot topic.   Kennedy gets it, he gets the economic and environmental significance – he wants to be shovel ready if Smithtown gets the green light.  Kennedy probably know more about sewers than any other legislator on Long Island – he’s up there with Flynn when it comes to a sewer I.Q., although not a decision maker regarding the grant, perhaps Kennedy is really the Great Wizard of Sewers.  Tanzi has had numerous conversations and meetings with Kennedy and says we can’t keep turning a blind eye to the fact that sewers in our central business districts will accomplish three important goals:  the expansion of our tax base, the economic expansion that many communities desperately need in addition to the protection of our drinking water.   Maybe just maybe there is a third elephant in this opinion piece and it’s the election for Town Supervisor on November 5^th.  Kings Park is indeed a prime candidate for the sewer grants but how will Bellone and Cuomo make that determination?  On November 5^th when the polling numbers start rolling in they will have their eyes on Smithtown.   We have three candidates running for Smithtown Supervisor – Steve Snair (D) and Bob Creighton (C)  speak about Smart Growth, moving forward and infrastructure improvements like sewers.  Supervisor Patrick Vecchio touts the high quality of life in Smithtown; he and his comrades don’t admit to any gross problems or failures affecting or facing the town.   Three Elephants, Sewers, A Blog & One Very Important Election.       

News Of Long Ago - "Lawrence Butler’s crowning achievement – the Smithtown Bull….”

News of Long Ago by Bradley Harris, Smithtown Historian

(The previous article was about Lawrence Smith Butler, Cornelia Smith Butler’s oldest son, and the impact that he had upon the Smithtown community.  This article takes a look at the rest of the story of Lawrence Butler’s life and achievements.)

“Lawrence Butler’s crowning achievement – the Smithtown Bull….”

                  When Lawrence Smith Butler died in 1954, he was 78.  His life had been a full one and he made many significant contributions to Smithtown’s history.  A direct descendant of the bull rider, Richard Smythe, Lawrence Butler spent much of his childhood in St. James at his parent’s summer house, Bytheharbor.  Following his father’s death in 1901, Lawrence lived with his mother in this house on St. James Harbor until she died in 1915.   He then inherited Bytheharbor and its surrounding acreage that stretched from Moriches Road down Cordwood Path to the harbor’s edge.  After his mother’s death, Lawrence moved out of Bytheharbor and into the “casino” that he made his home and called Cedar Court.  Cedar Court became his home in St. James for the rest of his life.  As a result, Lawrence Butler is remembered by many people living in St. James and Smithtown.

                  Many people remember Lawrence Butler’s love of horses and horseback riding.  He is remembered for his involvement in polo and the Smithtown Hunt.  The Smithtown News noted in Lawrence Butler’s obituary that he had been active in establishing polo in St. James and the ‘polo field,’ at the southeast corner of Moriches and Fifty Acre Road” was actually on his property.  (“Lawrence S. Butler Buried at St. James,” Smithtown News, April 1, 1954, p. 18.)   The polo field was adjacent to another large field that was the site of the annual Smithtown Horse Show for many years and it was Lawrence Butler who founded the original Smithtown Horse Show in 1909.  This property off Fifty Acre Road was also the kickoff for many of the hunts organized by the Smithtown Hunt and it was to Lawrence Butler’s estate that members of the Hunt retired for a breakfast or luncheon following the hunt.  It was also at Lawrence Butler’s Casino, in the large ballroom, that the Smithtown Hunt Balls were held.

                  Other people remember Lawrence Butler’s service as a “vestryman and treasurer” of the St. James Episcopal Church.  These same people also remember his fine baritone voice which boomed out through the church during Sunday services and he always seemed to be in church on Sundays.  Others remember the Lawrence Butler Christmas tree which still stands near the Presbyterian Church in the little triangle of ground between River Road and North Country Road.  They remember him enthusiastically leading Christmas carols and getting people in the Christmas spirit.  Still others remember him hosting Sunday afternoon gatherings at his home for “musicales” and musical performances in which he was a frequent participant and they remember him starring in the musical productions that were staged in Assembly Hall in Smithtown Branch. 

                  Still others remember Lawrence Butler for his architectural prowess and his designs for Town Hall, the Public Library, and Assembly Hall.  The architectural stamp of the firm he formed with “two other well established architects” – Ford, Butler and Oliver – is to be found in many other buildings and homes throughout Smithtown.  Lawrence Butler’s “job in the firm was principally to drum up trade,” and in his memoirs he describes how “one day I went after a job in my car.  I had a chauffeur and when I asked the man if he needed an architect, he looked at my car and chauffeur and said ‘You don’t need a job!’ and so the next time I left the car at home.” (Butler, Lawrence Smith. Handwritten memoirs, ca. 1953, Lawrence Smith Butler Collection from the Long Island Room files, Smithtown Library.)  His architectural firm specialized in the “design of country houses,” and Lawrence found many jobs in Smithtown.  He designed his brother’s house when it was built on the Branglebrink Farm property, and remodeled his sister’s home – the Huntington house at Rassapeague.  His firm designed the “St. James Fire House, the former O’Berry Garage in St. James, the ‘Polo’ House and the poultryman’s cottage on Fifty Acre Road, the Harbor Country Day School, the Timothy Stables opposite the Episcopal Church Office, and the Allister Morris and the John Kerr Houses on Timothy Lane.”  (Barbara Van Lieu, Head-of-the-Harbor, A Journey Through Time, Main Road Books, Inc., Laurel, N.Y., 2005, p. 31.)  In Preservation Notes, Barbara Van Lieu identified some additional houses that Lawrence Butler designed including the James Lane Cottage, the Malcolm Smith House, the Martin Taylor House, and the Schmidt House on Edgewood Avenue. 

                  Other people remember the role that Lawrence Butler played in World War I.  When the United States entered WW I, Lawrence Butler “was over the draft age” but felt he “should do something, as many of my contemporaries were off to officer’s training camps, etc.  A Mr. Franklin Lord arranged for me to be the head of a draft board, taking in the towns of Smithtown, Huntington, Islip, and Babylon, with headquarters at Babylon, so this fixed me, although I hated even to pass on boys to go overseas.”  Throughout the war, he served in this capacity and as “chairman of the Exemption Board for the First District of Suffolk County.”  Lawrence Butler not only determined who in Smithtown received a draft notice, he also reviewed those who applied for exemptions determining who ultimately went off to trenches on the western front.  (Butler, Lawrence Smith, Handwritten memoirs, ca. 1953, op. cit.)

                  Some people remember that Lawrence Butler was responsible for the creation of the Smithtown Country Club that once occupied the 8 acres of property on northwest corner of the intersection of Fifty Acre Road and Edgewood Avenue.  Butler purchased the property in 1917 from the widow of Ignacio V. Mathieu, the man who bought the 50 acres of property that James Clinch Smith had sold for $1 in 1905.  This was the property where the St. James Driving Park had been located.  In 1911, Ignacio sold 42.86 acres of the property, the race track lot, to Charles Butler who used the property as pastureland for his cows.  And in 1917, his widow sold the remaining 7.14 acres with the house and barns to Lawrence Butler.  While he owned it, the property became the Smithtown Country Club “and was for many years a comfortable and convenient place to eat or stay.”  Lawrence Butler owned this property until 1947 when he sold it to Mildred Edgar Wood and Irene Metz who added a ballroom and other wings to the original building, and in 1959, opened the Smithtown Riding and Tennis Club. (Barbara Van Lieu, Head-of-the-Harbor, A Journey Through Time, op. cit., p. 149.)    

                  What I like to remember about Lawrence Butler is the fact that he was responsible for bringing the statue of Richard Smythe’s bull to the Town of Smithtown. The placement of a bull statue in the heart of Smithtown to commemorate the legendary founding of the Town of Smithtown, was something that Lawrence Butler had long dreamed of doing.  Lawrence Butler first suggested the idea of a statue of a bull to the sculptor Charles Cary Rumsey when the two men were attending the School of Fine Arts in Paris.  He must have told Charles Rumsey the story of Richard Smythe’s legendary bull ride and suggested that he sculpt a bull in plaster for his thesis project.  Charles Rumsey decided to do that and completed the model in 1905.  Upon graduation the two men went their separate ways in pursuit of their own careers and over twenty years passed.

                  Sometime around 1928, Lawrence Butler corresponded with Charles Rumsey and told him that certain parties in Smithtown were interested in having the bull cast in bronze for a statue that would be placed prominently in a park in the Town of Smithtown.  Charles Rumsey agreed to cast a huge bronze statue of the bull that would weigh some five tons and stand 9’ tall for which he would be paid $12,000.  Charles Rumsey went ahead with the commission and by 1928 he had completed the casting of the statue.  Only then did he discover, much to his consternation, that the interested parties in Smithtown could not raise the necessary $12,000.  The Depression further stymied efforts to raise the money to purchase the statue and Charles Rumsey was “stuck” with his huge bronze bull.  Mr. Rumsey then loaned the statue to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum which prominently displayed the bull on a pedestal in front of the museum.  There the bull remained until 1932, when Mr. Rumsey was tragically killed in an automobile accident on Long Island.  The bull was then taken down and stored away in a warehouse in Long Island City.

                  Following Mr. Rumsey’s death, the sculptor’s son and daughter decided to donate the statue to the Town of Smithtown if the town would pay the cost of transporting the bull from Long Island City to Smithtown.  At that point Lawrence Butler again got involved and persuaded the Town Board to accept the sculpture and to allocate $250 for the concrete pedestal.  Mr. Butler also promised that together with Norman W. McBurney, he would form a committee to obtain the money to pay the cost of transporting the statue to Smithtown.

                  Keeping his promise, Lawrence Butler’s committee raised the necessary money for transportation costs ($1750), and the statue was shipped to Smithtown by the LIRR.  In April of 1941, after considerable difficulty and the slight injury of one of the workmen (one wonders how the 5 ton statue was set in place), the bull was hoisted atop its pedestal and all was in readiness for the official dedication.

                  The official unveiling ceremony took place on Saturday afternoon, May 10, 1941 at 3:30 p.m.  Charles Rumsey’s daughter, Mary Harriman Rumsey, officially presented the statue to the Town, and on behalf of the Town, Supervisor John N. Brennan accepted the gift.  Supervisor Brennan spoke of the illustrious history of the Smith family in Smithtown, and then Richard Bull Smith, a descendant  of the “bull rider,” pulled a rope and the canvas fell away to reveal the bull.  Lawrence Butler’s dream had at last come true, and “Whisper” as the bull would come to be known, had finally come home to Smithtown.

                  So the next time you pass by the statue of “Whisper” that stands so proudly upon his pedestal at the intersection on North Country Road (25A) and Jericho Turnpike, think of Lawrence Smith Butler, the architect from St. James who was instrumental in shaping our town and making sure that we will always be reminded that it was Richard Smythe who founded Smithtown.