House raises questions about landmark preservation

By WILL SHEELINE wsheeline@liherald.com

Members of several local historical organizations have expressed concern that a historic property, the Ludlam House in Mill Neck, has been purchased, potentially to be torn down and replaced. They say that the house, which was built in 1878, offers both village and town government an opportunity to strengthen landmark-protection laws.

The Herald contacted the real estate firm that managed the deal, Douglas Elliman, which did not respond to requests for comment or pro - vide contact information for the new owners by press time.

The Ludlam House was originally owned by members of the Ludlam family, who settled on Long Island in the late 1700s. Intermarrying with local families like the Youngs and the Weekses, the Ludlams expanded and renovated the property throughout the 1800s, and the house was largely completed in 1878, at a time when the Victorian style of home architecture, which has a wide range of architectural influences, was popular.

The house and property were featured in a well-known painting of the area, made in the 1860s by a local artist known only as Marky. The painting is owned by Raynham Hall Museum, in Oyster Bay, and is one of two that show what Harriet Clark, the museum’s director, described as “a weird, sort of convoluted perspective of Oyster Bay in the 1860s.”

Clark said that she had heard about the historic home’s sale from friends, and was concerned that it might be torn down. Clark had visited it, and said that due to the high cost of maintaining old houses like it, it might end up being resold or demolished.

Clark said that the Ludlam

House’s situation highlights a need for local government to step in and help support historic properties in the area. The Town of Oyster Bay, she said, has protections for numerous properties in the township, and she said that if the town created tax incentives for the owners of such homes, more 19thcentury buildings could be pro- tected.

“We need to come up with some sort of tax incentives or some framework that will allow buildings like that to be preserved,” Clark said. Otherwise, “You risk completely erasing the history that’s hanging on by its fingernails all around us.”

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