Available Publications
Then & NOw: Smithtown
By Bradley Harris, Kiernan Lannon, and Joshua Ruff
Like many towns across America, Smithtown has struggled to balance commercial and residential growth with its historic features and sense of place. Bradley Harris, Kiernan Lannon, and Joshua Ruff, authors of Images of America: Smithtown, have collaborated once again to explore new layers of their community’s history. Working with photographer John DiGiacomo, these historians mined the collection of the Smithtown Historical Society to select images from the town’s past, which, when set beside their modern companions, reveal both enormous change and comforting continuity. — $22.00
Images of America: Smithtown
By Bradley Harris, Kiernan Lannon, and Joshua Ruff
A 90-minute train ride east of Manhattan, Smithtown is a world away from New York City with its long rural history and sprawling suburban present. The town’s creation myth, that Native Americans granted its founder as much land as he could cover on his pet bull, is captured in a five-ton bronze statue, as well as a town seal and school mascot that bear the image of that mythical ride. But the town’s actual development is far richer, having been impacted by generations of African slaves, Irish, Italian, and Norwegian immigrants, and wealthy summer residents. A farming and mill-based economy in the 19th century, Smithtown became a suburban magnet in the 1950s and one of the fastest-growing locales in New York State. — $22.00
Images of America: Kings Park
By Marianne Howard, Bradley Harris, and Joshua Ruff
Nestled amidst a major commuter train line, a state highway, and picture-perfect views of the Long Island Sound and Nissequogue River, Kings Park balances its small-town feel with an excitingly diverse community vibrancy. Kings Park emerged in the late 19th century as the product of a utopian-inspired farm and the first state psychiatric hospital on Long Island. The community has diverse origins, with its foundation built upon thousands of incoming Irish and Italian immigrant workers and an orphanage for African American children. Throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries, Kings Park gradually evolved into a contemporary Long Island suburb, rebuilding after a traumatic downtown fire in 1917, reaping the benefits of one of the North Shore’s largest state parks (Sunken Meadow), and blossoming into a bustling family-oriented place. — $22.00
The obadiah Smith house
By Gail Hessel
This informational booklet on the Obadiah Smith House was written by local Gail Hessel to highlight this special homestead from Smithtown’s past. Obadiah was a landowner and part owner in the milling industry at Head of the River, the area south of where Whisper the Bull currently resides. Obadiah’s house is one of the earliest surviving Smith houses, and the only one that has been restored under professional supervision and is regularly used for public education. This booklet details not only the house’s history, but the lives of those who lived there using primary sources, photographs, and interviews with local townsfolk. — $6.00
The Family of richard smith, ten generations
By Frederick Kinsman Smith
First published in 1967, this volume is a detailed history of Richard Smith’s descendants. It goes into great detail wherever possible, and many recognizable local families are also mentioned; the Blydenburghs, the Brushes, the Lawrences — all these names and more can be found in Smith family history. Dr. Frederick Kinsman Smith of Ohio, himself a ninth generation descendant of Richard Smith, “diligently sought out, through many avenues of research, corroborative evidence as to the accuracy of such information by checking innumerable sources, and wherever possible, original records. Even when he was able to find original records he met with the difficulties all genealogists face, of discrepancies between names and dates and spellings as found in family Bibles and on tombstones and those in parish records or town records of vital statistics. His voluminous and carefully compiled notebooks reveal the many sources to which he turned and the scrupulous care he exercised in his search for accuracy.” — Robert J. Malone, Town of Smithtown Supervisor, 1944-1946 in the forward to Ten Generations. — $30.00
*Please be aware that due to this book having very limited availability, it is unavailable for sale. The Smithtown Historical Society is currently working on getting more copies made. Please contact our office at 631-265-6768 if you are interested in purchasing this book when it becomes available. In addition, please contact the Smithtown Library to borrow a copy of The Family of Richard Smith, Ten Generations.