MIDDLE
ISLAND- One of the most interesting places to visit in this part
of Long Island is Emil's Middle Island museum on Middle Country
road just east of the Presbyterian church here. As we enter this
museum filled with one of the largest collections of curios on
Long Island, the hands of time seem to be turned back to the
days of long ago.
Here
are displayed a complete old-fashioned country store of the late
1800's and the post office and fixtures at Middle Island in use
when Miss Cynthia Hutchinson was postmistress in 1877, with some
of the fixtures dating back to 1840. The letter boxes are filled
with old newspapers of that period, and auction hand bills
advertising country auctions of by gone days are tacked on the
wall.
A
complete blacksmith shop with fixtures dating back to 1780 from
the old wheelright shop of Charles Marvin of Yaphank, and an old
one horse shay dating back to 1700 from Marvin's shop is on
exhibition.
Other
items are a drug store with its old fixtures of years long past
from Sayville and a barber shop complete with the old-fashioned
individual shaving cups from Hicksville.
An item
old special interest is the first sheriff seal of Suffolk county
in use when Phineas Carll was sheriff in 1795, and signed by
George Clinton the first governor of New York State.
Another
interesting relic is an old handbill campaign advertisement of
1892, when Andrew Jackson was running for president of the
United States as well as torches used in the election campaign
of Abraham Lincoln in later years.
An old
dog treadmill attached to a churn that was used by the farmers
to make their butter years ago is very interesting. A large
exhibit of old-fashioned telephones take one back to the days
when telephones first came into use.
A large
collection of sculptured figures by the eminent American
Sculptor John Rogers, is on display.
There
are thousands of articles including Indian relics, pistols,
guns, swords, ammunition, uniforms, household and kitchen
utensils, farm implements, Long Island egg collections, lap
organs, music boxes, the first juke boxes, a surveying chain in
use during the period when George Washington was a surveyor, an
American Eagle bed spread of 1800, carpet bags, old shoemakers
bench and tools, a multitude of old advertisements, papers,
documents and posters.
For the
children are an old hand operated merry-go-round with life-sized
horses and a bird cage with a singing canary that comes out and
sings when wound up.
This
collection is the result of 25 years work as an antique
collector by Emil Lengyel who was preserved and assembled the
thousands of items making up this museum. He has done an
important work in preserving for posterity these relics of life
on Long Island during the early years of its settlement and a
visit to this museum is of great educational value to everyone.
The old
house adjoining the museum is the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lengyel
and was built about 1740 and was one of the first houses to be
built when the middle of the island was opened up to settlement.
The
museum will reopen Wednesday and a small admission charge is
made to defray expenses. Hours may be spent browsing through
this huge collection of relics of the past.