Nassau: preserve past to build for future

Nassau County Comptroller Elaine Phillips is crowing about the $80 million surplus in the budget rather than be embarrassed by what it says about the failure of leadership and vision to invest in the future – or the past.

For years, Nassau County, the ostensible “owner” of the historic Saddle Rock Grist Mill, has let it rot instead of spending money or even attention on its preservation, whining that there aren’t the funds to preserve it, let alone restore it.

Now that the county has $80 million unallocated, there is no excuse. (My last column chastised North Hempstead Supervisor Jennifer DeSena for the town’s monumental failure in its responsibility as steward of the historic Stepping Stones Lighthouse).

The Saddle Rock Grist Mill is one of fve remaining tidal grist mills left in the entire English-speaking world. Dating back to colonial days in 1715, it was central to the settlement and development of the Great Neck Peninsula, providing the economic underpinning. It actually functioned until 1947, when Louise (Udall) Eldridge, whose family had owned it since 1833, died and bequeathed it to the Nassau County Historical Society, which unable to aford to maintain it, gave it to Nassau County.

It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978. Eldridge, it is worth noting, was the frst female mayor in New York State and also founded the Great Neck Library and Great Neck Parks.

Scores of children – now adults –and their parents cherish the memory and the thrill of visiting the Grist Mill and receiving a packet of milled corn. Today the “closed for the season” sign across a locked fence has been up for more than 25 years. The water wheel has rotted away.

A community that values its history shows its pride. Historic landmarks often are the keystone that unifes a community, provides a sense of identity, stability and can also be an economic engine.

These historic structures provide a visceral connection from the past to our present. They also foster a needed sense of humility in recognizing what we are today is just a tiny link in a chain, that we owe what we have to those who came before and have an obligation to similarly pass along things of consequence to our successors. They help forge an identity and pride for our fragmented Peninsula and bring community together in a shared cause. They bring visitors who not only spend money on the Peninsula, but also become familiarized – perhaps to buy a home or locate a business.

I recently returned from a series of trips to Canada – Banf, Vancouver, New Brunswick, and Quebec’s Eastern Townships – where I saw this in action. As we traveled through tiny towns and small villages, what was notable were the historic markers, plaques, structures that have been restored and repurposed that made them charming and the reason to visit – a water mill now the Missisquoi Historic Museum, a church now the Sutton arts center.

A high school physics teacher in Cape Enrage on the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, rallied the community to save their historic lighthouse from being replaced by a metal pole, turning this picturesque site into a nature center (fossils!) and adventure park (ziplining! rappelling!), operated by a nonproft. The charming Victorian town of Knowlton in Quebec, the fctional “Three Pines” of detective novelist Louise Penny, entrances visitors to fnd all 56 artful manikins, which get you lingering outside a shop, a café, a patisserie long enough to intrigue you to go in.

As all these communities have recognized, historic preservation brings enormous economic and social benefts, enhancing the quality of life for residents and visitors alike.

“Preservation enhances real estate values and fosters local businesses, keeping historic main streets and downtowns economically viable,” the National Park Service states. “Heritage tourism is a real economic force, one that is evident in places that have been preserved their historic character. Developers are discovering that money spent rehabilitating historic buildings is actually an investment in the future, when these structures could be the showpieces of a revitalized city.” (www. nps.gov/subjects/historicpreservation/ economic-impacts.htm#)

The National Historic Preservation Act was enacted because of a recognition that historic sites provide a keystone for a community, make it livable, give it life, character. “The nation is coming to understand that remaining in touch with its past is part of that Continued on Page 18