Smithtown Musician Sandy Tepper To Play Clarinet At Carnegie Hall

By Maureen Rossi

Sandy TepperSandy Tepper lives and works in Smithtown, the talented clarinetist is about to perform on one of the most renown stages – the famed Carnegie Hall.  “Performing at Carnegie Hall has been a dream of mine since I was a kid; this is not only a debut recital, but it’s a way to present myself on the biggest stage of the world,” he explained.   

On October 27^th at 2:00 p.m. the nationally accomplished clarinetist will be performing works by iconic musical masters such as Carl Maria von Weber, Max Reger, Johannes Brahms ad Karel Husa.  Sandy will be joined onstage by pianist Claudine Hickman, cellist Suzanne Mueller and violist Gregory K. Williams.  “I’m very proud to stand alongside these incredible musicians and join the ranks of those that have had the privilege to play on this stage,” said Tepper.  

The twenty-eight year old graduated from Smithtown High School in 2003 and had the quintessential Smithtown upbringing; there was soccer with the Smithtown Kickers and little league baseball.    He received his Bachelor of Music in Music Performance at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam and his Mater of Music from the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. 

Tepper says his biggest fans will be in the audience on Sunday.  “My mother and father have been my biggest supporters over the years,” he said.     He is hopeful this concert will be the gateway to his future in music, be it teaching at a college, playing in an orchestra or performing in recitals all over the world.   “That’s where I’ve always felt I’m supposed to be”, he ended.  

Tepper has also appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra. 

Letters to Editor: Rx 4 Safety

Prescription drug abuse has become an epidemic in the United States.  According to Trust for America’s Health, prescription drug-related deaths now outnumber those from heroin and cocaine combined, and drug overdose deaths exceed motor vehicle-related deaths in over half of U.S. states. How can we protect our communities, especially our children, from getting their hands on medications not prescribed for them?

Drug take back days like the upcoming DEA Take Back Day on October 26 and the secure drop boxes available 24/7 located at each of Suffolk County Police Department’s seven precinct offices  provide an easy, no-questions-asked way to get rid of unused or unwanted drugs.  In Smithtown, Covanta Energy’s Rx4Safety program works hand-in-hand with community organizations such as the SCPD’s Operation Medicine Cabinet and Citizen’s Campaign for the Environment, educating the community not only on the public health & safety aspects of the proper disposal of unwanted or unused prescription drugs, but equally on the environmental importance of safe disposal to protect precious groundwater supplies on Long Island.

Covanta provides the safe disposal and ultimate destruction of these prescription drugs at our Huntington energy-from-waste facility, keeping these medications out of the hands of potential abusers, and lessening the pollution of our waterways, where drugs can end up if they are flushed or sent to landfills.  

Thanks to partnerships like the one with Operation Medicine Cabinet and Citizen’s Campaign for the Environment, Covanta’s Rx4Safety program has been able to securely destroy One Million Pounds of unwanted prescription medication across the country since 2010.  While the milestone is impressive, our work is not done. We must continue to be diligent in fighting this epidemic and it’s thanks to the exceptional leadership of our partners that we are beginning to make a difference in keeping our communities safer and healthier.  Help spread the word about this important public safety and environmental issue and make sure to dispose of medications properly!

Jeff George

Business Manager

News Of Long Ago - "Cornelia Stewart Smith Butler Becomes The First-Lady Of Smithtown"

News of Long Ago by Bradley Harris, Smithtown Historian

Previously I wrote about the five daughters of Judge John Lawrence Smith and their marriages. This article takes a look at the life of Cornelia Stewart Smith, the Judge’s oldest daughter who married Prescott Hall Butler, and had three children. During her lifetime, Cornelia Stewart Smith Butler became a much loved and respected first-lady of Smithtown. 

“Cornelia Stewart Smith Butler becomes the first-lady of Smithtown….”

When Judge John Lawrence Smith died in 1889, he was 73 and his oldest daughter Cornelia was 43.  She had been married sixteen years to Prescott Hall Butler and they had three children – Lawrence (14), Charles (13) and Susan (10).  The Butlers made their home in New York City in a house they owned at 22 Park Avenue.  Prescott was a lawyer with the firm of Everts, Choate, and Beaman, was one of the preeminent lawyers of his day, and according to the Butler family genealogy  “secured a commanding position among the masters of law in New York City.”   He seems to have made a comfortable income as a lawyer since in 1879, just four years after being admitted to the bar, he asked his friend and Harvard classmate Charles McKim to design a summer home for him in St. James.  He then built the house known as Bytheharbor.  (See the accompanying photograph.)  This house was gradually expanded into a very large estate where the Butler family spent their summers and their three children became very much attached to their home Bytheharbor in St. James.

When the Judge died, he willed the Homestead and 200 acres of land in Smithtown Branch to his son James Clinch Smith and Cornelia did not inherit anything from her father.  But when her mother, Sarah Clinch Smith, died a year later in April of 1890, Cornelia inherited a fortune from her mother’s estate.  Her mother was the niece of Cornelia Stewart, the wife of Alexander T. Stewart, the merchant prince of New York City who, when he died on April 10, 1876, left a fortune estimated to be $50,000,000.  His will, probated four days later at Mrs. Stewart’s request, left the entire estate to Mrs. Stewart and her heirs.  Since the Stewarts had no children, the heirs were Cornelia Stewart’s brothers and sisters and their children.  The will also stipulated that Henry Hilton, Stewart’s attorney, was to close and wind up A.T. Stewart’s business affairs and for this he was receive $1 million dollars.  William Libbey, A.T. Stewart’s CEO, was also to receive $1 million dollars when A.T. Stewart was liquidated.  The will made Mrs. Stewart, Henry Hilton, and William Libbey, executors of the estate.  

On the same day that the will was probated, Mrs. Stewart assigned virtually complete control over all her property to Henry Hilton by executing a power of attorney.  Another document transferred most of the business interests of A.T. Stewart to Henry Hilton for $1 million dollars. And yet another document created a general partnership between Henry Hilton and William Libbey who joined forces to continue business under the name of A.T. Stewart & Company.  For his $1 million dollars, Henry Hilton acquired A.T. Stewart’s assets estimated to be $40 million dollars.  The widow was left with the Stewart mansion on 5^th Avenue, land in Garden City and Saratoga, and other improved parcels of real estate in New York City.  The value placed on the remaining assets was thought to be $13 million dollars.  Clearly, Henry Hilton did a neat little job of lawyering and found a way to appropriate Stewart’s fortune.  

Miffed by Henry Hilton’s appropriation of the Stewart fortune, the Stewart heirs joined together and sued Henry Hilton claiming he had taken advantage of the distraught widow and gotten her to sign the documents under duress.  Drawing on Judge John Lawrence Smith’s legal expertise as a surrogate judge, the Stewart heirs seemed to be making headway in court when Henry Hilton agreed to an out of court settlement in 1890.   The heirs who brought suit wrestled the following properties from Henry Hilton:  “The Metropolitan Hotel and Niblo’s Garden Theater, the marble mansion of Mrs. Stewart, the Clarendon, St. James and Grand Hotels and several business blocks in Saratoga Springs.”  There were also “two lots of land at Hempstead Plains, one containing 7170 acres and the other containing 1062 acres, and the Greenfield cemetery at Hempstead…; various parcels of land in Oyster Bay; also thirteen miles of railroad running from Floral Park to Bethpage and all the equipment; also Bleeker Street property, and a great number of buildings in various streets in New York City.”  In addition to this real estate, the heirs divided some $12,000,000 which remained of the Stewart fortune.  (The information about the assets of the A.T. Stewart estate came from Vincent Seyfried’s The Founding of Garden City, Uniondale, N.Y.: Salisbury Printers, 1969, p. 43-53, the chapter entitled “Last Years of the Stewart Estate.”)

This inheritance passed through the eight heirs in the Clinch and Butler families to the J. Lawrence Smith family descendants and to the Butler family descendants who were living in Smithtown.  The sudden riches that Judge Smith’s children inherited made it possible for them to do what nouveau riche newcomers on Long Island’s north shore were doing – build their own estates.  Cornelia and Prescott Butler benefitted from inheriting two shares of the A.T. Stewart fortune – one share through Cornelia’s mother, Sarah Nicoll Clinch, and a second share through Prescott’s mother, Louise Clinch.  Cornelia and Prescott Butler were fabulously rich, and in the 1890’s, this fortune made it possible for them to improve their estate in St. James.  Prescott Butler started by building extensions onto Bytheharbor.   Then he had a windmill built on the harbor which was used to pump fresh water up the hill to his house near Moriches Road.  Then he purchased 800 acres of land that surrounded Bytheharbor and stretched to the south along Fifty Acre Road.  And finally he had a fine new stable built for his horses complete with “box stalls and all the fancy fixins.”  Lawrence Butler wrote in his own memoirs that his father built the stables at a time when “those sinful automobiles” were just “beginning to creep in” and he swore that he would never own an automobile.  He never did since he died of cancer in 1901 at the age of 53.  (Barbara Van Lieu, Head-of-the-Harbor, A Journey Through Time, Main Road Books, Inc. Laurel, N.Y., 2005, p. 37.)  

Following her husband’s death, Cornelia spent more of her time in St. James where she felt at home among family and friends.  She continued to live at Bytheharbor and was there in 1903 when a fire burned the new stables to the ground.  Cornelia then had a guesthouse built on the foundations of the stable.  This large building, which was behind Bytheharbor and further down the hill along Cordwood Path, was intended as a playhouse where large social functions could be held and athletic activities and events could be staged.  The north end of this building originally contained a squash court.  Immediately adjacent to the court was a central hallway that had showers and a tiled “plunge” located off the hallway.  After a strenuous squash match, players could take a dip in the pool.  In 1905, Stanford White  added a ballroom to the guesthouse, a huge addition that was two stories high and “seventy feet long, with a paneled stage at one end.”  The room was so large, 70’ long and 40’ wide, with a ceiling 22’ above the floor that it reminded people of a casino and it was referred to as Butler’s Casino.  Apparently Stanford White designed the ball room specifically for Cornelia Butler.  The ballroom was to become the site of many social functions in Smithtown – social functions that were sponsored and organized by Mrs. Cornelia Stewart Smith Butler, and after her death, by her son Lawrence Butler.  (The information about the Casino came from Butler-Smith and Allied Family Histories, Genealogical and Biographical, issued under the editorial supervision of Ruth Lawrence, published by National Americana Publications, Inc., New York, 1952, pp.10,11,13,14.  The book is in the Long Island Room of the Smithtown Library.)

Cornelia lived fourteen years following Prescott’s death, and during that time, she became the ‘first Lady’ of Smithtown, a real leader in Smithtown’s society.  Cornelia was a generous benefactor and helped the people of St. James by contributing $1,000 toward the cost of construction of a new schoolhouse on Three Sisters Road.  She convinced her brother-in-law, Stanford White to design the school.  She also supported the construction of the building known as the Assembly Hall for the people of St. James.   She generously donated the ½ acre of land in Smithtown Branch upon which the original Smithtown Library was built, and then she loaned the Smithtown Library money to pay for the cost of construction of the building.  She persuaded her son, Lawrence Butler, to design the building and oversee its construction.  And when the Smithtown Library opened its doors, Cornelia Butler became one of the first members of the Smithtown Library Board of Trustees.  

Cornelia Butler became known for her generosity and philanthropy and she quietly helped out many people in Smithtown. She sponsored Christmas parties for the children of St. James and paid for the distribution of Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys to the firemen of St. James.  These things we know she did, but there were many more private and secret acts of kindness that she performed to help those in misfortune or distress that we will never know about.  When she passed away from pneumonia at the age of 69 on October 21, 1915, George Zabriskie, who knew of her generosity, was prompted to write the following obituary for the Smithtown Messenger:

“In all the generations of his (Richard Smythe’s) descendants that have lived and died during these two and a half centuries, no name is held now, or will be transmitted in our local traditions to those who come after us, in warmer affection or higher esteem than the name of Mrs. Cornelia Stewart Butler. …  She inherited from her father, the late J. Lawrence Smith, a deep love for Smithtown, its woods and fields and waters, its people, and its history, a love which grew with the seventy years she lived among us.”

“Her wide acquaintance among our people and her constant regard for them will be treasured in many households.  We have all known her interest in the Public Library, in the Town Hall, in the Assembly Hall, and in the St. James’ Church. Few but the recipients have known of her private and secret acts of kindness to many in misfortune or distress.  To everyone in Smithtown she was in unique sense our neighbor.  It is not the happiness of many persons to be so universally loved as Mrs. Butler was: not only here, the home of her heart, but also in New York, where every year a part of her life was passed. Those who knew her could not help loving her.”

“No difficult analysis is requisite to discover the reason; she loved other people.  A mind free from guile, simple and direct; a charity, that neither spoke nor thought evil of others; a humility, that thought little of herself but delighted to make much of everybody else; a sincere piety that expressed itself in service toward God and man; a sympathetic spirit, not free from anxiety, but chiefly troubled by the cares of others; a friendliness that evoked friendship; such qualities as these made knowing her equivalent to loving her.”

“Mrs. Butler in her gracious and useful life has added much to the happiness of those who came into contact with her.  The Town of Smithtown, the City of New York, are better for her living in them.”

Cornelia Stewart Smith Butler must have been a remarkable lady.  It is too bad that more of her philanthropic deeds are not known so that we could all truly appreciate what she did for others and for the people of Smithtown.  An indication of her generosity can be found in her will.  Upon her death, it was believed that the Butler estate was worth more than $1 million.  “The bulk of the property” was to go to her three children, Lawrence, Charles, and Susan Butler.  But there were “specific bequests.”  The St. James Episcopal Church received $5,000 and “a tract of land opposite the Church with the provision that it is to be used as a public park forever.”  The Grace Church of New York City received $1,000 “for general purposes.”  The Kips Bay Day Nursery received $500 and so did the Smithtown Library.  And the “Public School District of St. James” received “the income of $1,000 … to provide an instructive entertainment each Spring to the pupils.” (New York Times, “Mrs. Butler’s Will Filed,” November 7, 1915.)

So it can be seen that even after her death, Mrs. Butler’s philanthropic work continued.  She had instilled in her children the belief that they were obligated to help others in need and to help make their community a better place to live.  Her children would strive to do just that.         

What To Do With Former Bavarian Inn Site? Make It A Destination Point Says SC Legislator Candidate Jacobs

Site of the former Bavarian Inn in RonkonkomaThe Bavarian Inn is no more. The boarded up, graffiti laden building has been demolished. A few more weeks and all traces of the former restaurant/catering facility will be gone. People who live around the blighted site are relieved. Legislator John Kennedy held a press conference on the day the demolition began attended by many local officials. Pats on the back all around as the elected officials enthusiastically announced their support for the demolition and their relief that the blighted and dangerous building would no longer negatively impact on the community. 

Legislator Kennedy advocates the reuse of the property as a park.

“Not so fast”, says Gary Jacobs candidate in the 12th legislative district. Jacobs is looking to unseat Kennedy in November and he points to the Bavarian Inn as an example of what is wrong with government. “The boarded up Bavarian Inn was not just blight it was dangerous. It was dangerous for kids who went there and it was dangerous to the fire fighters and police who were called to the site. Someone could have been seriously hurt. It took over six years for the county to act on removing a danger from the community. If I lived there and my kids had to walk past it I would have been angry.”  

Jacobs responded to an open invitation from Smithtown Matters to comment on the future use of the site which is located in the Town of Smithtown. “I would very much like to see the property used as parkland with boat rentals. We can make Lake Ronkonkoma a destination this would bring visitors to the area spending money and visiting business in the area. I would really like to see a clam bar at the site.  I understand the issues with septic systems, but there are ways to make it work.” 

Undeterred by people who suggest that a clam bar is impossible, Jacobs talks about new technology for septic systems. He points out that the site housed a full blown restaurant and there is a bar within feet of the site. Paper dishes and plastic utensils could be used eliminating the need for huge dishwashers. 

“It can be done.” said Jacobs. 

News of Long Ago - "The Great Grandsons Of Judge J. Lawrence Smith Become Leaders In The Smithtown Community"

News of Long Ago by Bradley Harris, Smithtown Historian

(I have been writing about the descendants of Judge John Lawrence Smith and the impact they had upon the course of history in Smithtown.  This article takes a look at the children of Susan Butler and the role they played in shaping Smithtown’s history.)

“The great grandsons of Judge J. Lawrence Smith become leaders in the Smithtown community….” 

Judge John Lawrence Smith’s eldest daughter, Cornelia Stewart Smith, married a prominent New York City lawyer named Prescott Hall Butler and the Butlers had three children – Lawrence, Charles, and Susan.  Susan Butler married Francis Huntington, also a prominent New York City lawyer, and the Huntingtons had three children – Prescott, William and Christopher.  Each of these boys shared the conviction and belief of their grandmother, Cornelia Smith Butler, that as Smith family descendants, they were obligated to help others in need and should strive to make Smithtown a better place to live.  And each of the Huntington boys, the great grandsons of Judge J. Lawrence Smith, would strive to do just that.

Following Francis Huntington’s death at 51 on March 16, 1916, 36 year old Susan Butler Huntington became a widow with three small children – Prescott (10), William (8) and Christopher (5).  Susan opted to remain a single parent and raised the three boys on her own.  In their teens, Susan sent her boys to the boarding school known as St. Mark’s in Southborough, Massachusetts. After boarding school, the boys attended Harvard College from which all three boys graduated.  Prescott graduated in the Class of 1926, William in 1928, and Christopher in 1931.  Each of the boys continued their schooling with post-graduate work.  Prescott decided to pursue a law career and attended Harvard Law School graduating in 1929.  William attended the University of Virginia where he studied architecture and became an architect.  And Christopher attended Northwestern University where he got a Master’s degree in German.  He taught German at Harvard until World War II began.  The coming of World War II in 1941 was to have a profound impact on the careers that the Huntington sons had chosen.

Shortly after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1929, Prescott Huntington began practicing law with Wilson M. Powell, Jr., in New York City.  He subsequently joined his father’s law firm, Choate, Reynolds, Huntington, and Hollister, where he became a partner in the firm.  In 1930, Prescott Huntington married Sarah Powell Huntington and the young couple moved into the house at Rassapeague that Prescott’s grandmother, Cornelia Stewart Smith, had purchased for him on his first birthday on July 26, 1906.  The house was built in 1865 by Thomas Shepard Seabury, a nephew of William Sidney Mount who wanted to start a plantation business on the 96 acres of property in Nissequogue.  The plantation business he started on the property was a vineyard.  A subsequent owner, John Ruszits “bought the estate in 1881, and improved the vineyard by creating a winery, noted for its Rassapeague claret.”   By the time Cornelia Butler purchased the house and property in 1906, the vineyard was long gone.  In 1915, Lawrence Butler did some renovations of the house, adding a wing on the Victorian house and creating a large home with 22 rooms.  This large home with its magnificent views of Stony Brook Harbor became Prescott and Sarah Huntington’s home throughout their lives and became the “homestead” of the Huntington family for the generations that followed.  It was in this house off Long Beach Road in Nissequogue that Prescott and Sarah would have and raise five children, three sons – Francis, Lawrence and Samuel – and two daughters – Sarah and Susan.  It was also from this house that “Mr. Huntington commuted daily by train” from the St. James Railroad Station into New York City, “often driving the five miles to the station in the winter in an open jeep.”  (Brittany Wait, “History, up in Flames,” Times of Smithtown, January 12, 2012, p. A5.)   Prescott made this daily commute until World War II intervened.

  In 1942, Prescott Huntington joined the Navy “to teach seamanship and navigation to officer candidates.”  Since sailing in the open ocean was “one of Mr. Huntington’s favorite pastimes,” it is not surprising that he joined the Navy.  Later in the war, Prescott “served the combined chiefs of staff in Washington, D.C.”  When the war ended, Prescott received his honorable discharge and returned home to Rassapeague in 1946.  He went back to his law firm and once again made his daily commute to New York City.  It was after the war that Prescott Huntington began to play an active role in politics. (“Prescott B. Huntington, Long-Time Assemblyman,” newspaper obituary of March 31, 1988, on file in the Long Island Room names file, Smithtown Library.)

World War II disrupted the lives of William and Christopher Huntington as well.  Christopher also went into the Navy.  His experiences during the war led him to reconsider his teaching career and he decided to convert to Catholicism and become a priest.  This decision really upset his mother who was a devout Episcopalian and Susan never could understand why he converted.  When he returned to St. James after the war, he attended a Catholic seminary, took his vows, became a priest – Father Christopher – and helped out locally in the Catholic Church in St. James.  Christopher committed his life to helping the less fortunate and making life better for others.      

William Huntington believed so strongly that war was morally wrong and inherently evil that he became a Conscientious Objector during the war and was confined in a Conscientious Objector camp in Elmira, New York.  It was while there that he “first became involved with the Quakers” and following the end of the war and his release from the CO Camp, William “went to Europe as a Commissioner for the Friends Service Committee to provide post-war on-the-scene information to that organization from 1947 to 1949.”  When he returned to Long Island, he “worked as an architect, while serving on the Board of Directors of the Friends Service Committee,” and he made a “commitment to actually join the Quaker faith.”  This commitment was to shape his future in many ways.  (Therese Madonia, “Anti-War Activist Speaks Here April 11 ,” Smithtown News, April 7, 1983, pg. 24.)

Quakers firmly believe in the Biblical recommendation of “turning the other cheek” and are pacifists.  As a Quaker convert, William Huntington quickly adopted the belief that international questions would never be resolved by fighting and they “should be solved without arms and without war, peacefully.”  William was adamantly opposed to the use of nuclear weapons and soon “found himself in the middle of one” of “the best known pacifist actions of the late 1950’s.”  When the United States government decided to test the hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific, William Huntington and three other like-minded Quakers determined to stop the testing.  Armed with the locations of the test sites in the Pacific, they set sail aboard a yacht named the “Golden Rule” and sailed for the test site locations.  Their intent was to sail their ship into the area where the bombs were to be dropped, thereby forcing the government to stop the test. (Therese Madonia, op. cit., p.24.) 

In an effort to stop the “Golden Rule,” the federal government imposed a regulation banning ships from sailing in the atomic testing zone.  The “Golden Rule” was intercepted by the Coast Guard, the crew members were issued summonses, the four men had to appear in court in Hawaii to explain what they were doing, and the judge “enjoined them from sailing again.”  The four men ignored the ban and set sail for the testing sites.  Again they were stopped, brought back into court, reprimanded and put on probation.  As soon as they were released, the four men sailed once again for the testing sites.  This time they got three miles off shore when they were stopped for the third time, brought back to court and “jailed for 60 days.”   The ”Golden Rule“ never did make it to the test sites, and the hydrogen bombs were dropped anyway, but the Quakers had made their point and it wasn’t long before the federal government gave up any further testing of above ground nuclear weapons.  (Therese Madonia, op. cit., p. 24.)

William Huntington returned to New York City and went to work as “the host for Quaker House in New York City, a gathering place for UN delegates.”  Here he was able to get UN delegates to meet face-to-face, over dinners, so they could “speak off-the-record without worrying about protocol with anyone.”  He really had an opportunity to serve as a peacemaker in the world and who knows what agreements and understandings came from these dinner conversations.  William Huntington did his best to help others in need and to improve living conditions worldwide.  He left one other legacy to the people of St. James in 1960.   Working with other Quakers, he founded the Conscience Bay Quaker Meeting House off Moriches Road in Nissequogue.  The meeting house, created from a barn that stood on property that William Huntington inherited from his mother, is still standing today and provides a refuge and a place of worship for all those who wish to learn about the Society of Friends and their principles.  (Therese Madonia, op. cit., p. 24.)

Prescott Huntington’s efforts on behalf of his fellow citizens stemmed from “his abiding interest in civic affairs.”  Prescott Huntington was a staunch Republican and served as a Republican County Committeeman almost from the date he registered to vote.  He became involved in local politics, was elected Mayor of the Village of Nissequogue, and was then elected a Justice of the Peace in Smithtown becoming a member of the Smithtown Town Board.  In 1956, Prescott Huntington was elected New York State Assemblyman from Suffolk County’s Second Assembly District, an elected office he held for 14 years.  In 1959, he even made a run for Supervisor of Smithtown, losing out to the Democratic candidate from Kings Park, Robert Brady.   (“Prescott B. Huntington, Long-Time Assemblyman,” obituary, March 31, 1988, op. cit.)  

In Albany he became “chairman of the Codes Committee where he was known for his independence and integrity.”  He kept tabs for his constituents on any proposed legislation that came before the Assembly.  His “Reports from Albany” mailed directly to his constituents are full of information about bills being proposed and acted upon, but he never divulged how he intended to vote on an issue.  One issue on which he did make his views known was the Long Island Railroad.  “In the Assembly he fought vigorously for legislation supporting the railroad” and in gratitude, the LIRR made him “an honorary engineer.”  Perhaps it was the 40 years he spent commuting from St. James to New York City that made him such a loyal supporter of the railroad.  In 1970, Prescott Huntington retired from his New York City law practice with the firm of Choate, Reynolds, Huntington and Hollister and at the same time he ended his political career as a State Assemblyman.  At 64, Prescott Huntington wanted to enjoy life with his wife Sarah and to do some things he never had time to do, like sailing across the Atlantic Ocean which they did twice when they both were in their 60’s.  (St. James Episcopal Church bulletin on the occasion of Prescott Butler Huntington’s memorial service and burial, in the Huntington files of the Long Island Room, Smithtown Library.)  

When he died at his home after a bout with lung cancer on March 24, 1988, Prescott Huntington passed away knowing that he had done his best to help his fellow man and to make Smithtown a better place to live.