Commack History: Caleb Smith II

Located on North Country Road next to the Smithtown Library since 1955, the Caleb Smith II House represents early Commack history. The structure once belonged to one of the great-great-grandsons of Smithtown’s town founder, who called the hamlet home during the last decades of his life.

Caleb Smith II grew up on his father’s homestead where we find Caleb Smith State Park Preserve today. According to Simeon Wood’s A History of Hauppauge, Long Island, NY, Smith built his first home in Hauppauge in 1790. The house was located at the corner of Veteran’s Highway and Old Willett’s Path where the headquarters of the Suffolk County Police Fourth Precinct stands today. When his daughter Sarah
married, Smith gave the homestead to her and her husband.

While living in Hauppauge in 1798, Smith along with Joshua Smith II and Isaac Blydenburgh built the dam at the mill that is now found at Blydenburgh Park, according to Colonel Rockwell’s Scrap-book published by the Smithtown Historical Society in 1968.

Smithtown Historian Brad Harris said Smith built his new home in Commack in 1819 on the north side of Jericho Turnpike across from where the turnpike and Veteran’s Highway meet and cleared 250 acres for farmland. Typical of Federal architecture, the structure is a five-bay, two-story house, and the main floor features a wide center hall with two rooms on each side.

According to Then & Now: Smithtown by Harris, Kiernan Lannon and Joshua Ruff, among the outer buildings that once existed on the Commack property was a 1 1/2 story cottage. The structure was used by slaves who were freed by Smith and stayed on as family servants. Members of the family included Smith’s niece, according to An Illustrated History of Commack by Robert Saal. After his sister Martha and her husband John Conklin died of cholera, Smith brought up the child as his own.

Harris said Smith held offices such as justice of the peace and commissioner of highways. He also was a member of the State Assembly in 1813 and supervisor of Smithtown in 1826, 1827 and 1829.

According to Colonel Rockwell’s Scrap-book, Smith died in 1831 and his son Caleb III inherited the family homestead. In the attic, his son found the deed to the Smithtown area that was originally signed by Sachem Wyandanch and Lyon Gardiner, and then signed over to Richard Smythe by Lyon’s son David.

It was in 1904 when Robert Bailey Smith sold the property to ., according to the scrap-book. The home continued to change hands until 1955 when the Mayfair Developers bought it and planned to demolish it. Anna Blydenburgh, a founding member of the Smithtown Historical Society and great-granddaughter of Caleb Smith II, headed up a project to move the structure next to the Smithtown Library. The house became the headquarters of the historical society until 2008 and is now used for the organization’s exhibits.

While its location may have changed, the Caleb Smith II House stands today as a reminder of our past and a prominent member of the Smith family.