History of West Sayville

The first mention of West Sayville in the local history books is in reference to the "Greene House", a revolutionary era home built by the family of John Greene a member of the Huntington Family. According to local records General George Washington stopped at the house on April 22nd 1791 while touring Long Island. In the early years West Sayville was called both Tuckertown and Greenville. To this day, there continues to be some confusion about the early moniker. The founder of West Sayville was a Dutch born immigrant by the name of William Tucker, it was under his leadership that the first church was established with a volunteer fire department soon to follow. The name West Sayville was finally officially decided upon with the creation of the West Sayville Post Office in 1891.

The tale of West Sayville begins during the latter half of the 19th century when a hearty group of Dutch immigrants arrived in New York seeking their fortune. Hollanders had heard tales of the riches to be found in the Great South Bay and soon found themselves settling on the south shore of central Long Island. These energetic immigrants were considered successful, easily adapting to a maritime livelihood that was not much different from what they had left behind in Holland. Stories of the "happy Dutch colonists" continued to make their way back to the Netherlands resulting in the majority of the newcomers having some personal connection to someone who was already here. Within a few generations, the Dutch, known for their hard work and business acumen, had built a prosperous commercial enterprise harvesting the bountiful oyster beds in their local waters.

By the turn of the century oystering was in full swing. By 1902 the shoreline in West Sayville was dominated by oyster shacks. Solid wood frame homes were built to house the oyster and their families and the streets were paved in oyster shells.

The height of West Sayville's commercial success can be marked by the ascent of Jacob Ockers also known as the Oyster King. Ockers made his fortune buying oysters and shipping them to New York by boat. Between 1890 and 1910 Ocker's oyster plant, called Bluepoints, was shipping out two million oysters annually. Ocker's oysters were world renown and cherished for their "rich and nutty" flavor. Unfortunately by the 1930s oyster production began to wane in West Sayville. The beds were over-fished and the salinity of the water had changed over time gradually becoming less hospitable to the Oyster. The definitive end came with the 1938 hurricane. Countless maritime businesses were destroyed in that fateful storm, among them the Oyster beds of the Great South Bay. However, all was not ruined for the hearty baymen of West Sayville.

Ironically the loss of the oyster paved the way for the emergence of another popular shellfish, the clam. In short order the Long Island clam became the predominant shellfish of the Great South Bay. By the middle 1950s clams from the Great South Bay accounted for almost 75% of all clams consumed in America. Today those numbers have plummeted leaving the bay as barren as an aquatic desert. It's only in the past few years that environmentalists have begun to create remediation programs designed to restore the health of the once bountiful Great South Bay.

Directly west of "Tuckertown" lies the 500 acre Anson Hard Estate. Built in 1909 by Commodore Fredrick Bourne, the house was a wedding present for his daughter upon her marriage to Anson Hard. Bourne was the President of The Singer Sewing Co. The estate, built by the noted architect Isaac Green, is a good example of the "summer cottages" of the very rich that once dotted the shores of Long Island. The smaller accessory building was a carriage house whose architect is not known. The entire estate was purchased by Suffolk County in1967, the mansion serving as a club house for the West Sayville Country Club and the garage as a maritime museum.

Another unusual tidbit of West Sayville's colorful history is the Telefunken wireless station. Located off Cherry Avenue north of the railroad tracks the complex, built by the Telefunken Communications Company of Germany in 1911, was one of the most advanced wireless stations in existence at the time of its construction. Upon its completion it was capable of transmitting messages from its tower a similar tower 3,500 miles away in Nanen Germany. At the onset of WWI the station became a part of American history. Apparently two major messages were sent in code from the station, the first to waiting submarines revealing the location of the Lusitania given here, the second from Germany to Mexico requesting that Mexico attack America to prevent them from joining in the war. This last message was supposedly delivered to the US by England and was instrumental in bringing the US into the war. The U.S. Navy managed the station for the remainder of the war, later leasing the property. Eventually the Federal Aviation Administration or FAA continued to using the stations radio capabilities until mid 1995 when they decommissioned it and let it lay dormant. Unfortunately a group of citizens interested in the station's historic roots tried to preserve the site but were unsuccessful.