HOW OLD IS MY HOUSE?  WHAT STYLE OF HOUSE IS IT?

• If your house is one or two stories tall with rafters showing below the roof, it may be a bungalow built from 1905-1930.
• Is your house two stories with a gable facing the street and a side wing? This house is a vernacular farmhouse (1850-1890) also referred to as a folk or front gable and wing house.
• ls your house three stories tall with an asymmetrical facade, steeply pitched roofs and a porch? This is a Victorian house built between 1860 and 1910.
• A Greek revival may have columns, a Gothic revival has fall pointed gables and an Italianate house (1840 – 1885) has wide overhanging roof eaves supported by decorative brackets. You might own a Colonial, Dutch Colonial or Cape Cod. Occasionally styles are mixed or renovations disguise the original house. An Italianate house may be a front gable and wing house and a farmhouse may be dressed up as a Victorian.

Consulting these (forbidden?) tomes may help determine what style your house is and when it was built:

• A Field Guide to American Houses – McAlester (728.0973 MCA)
• American House Styles – Baker (728.3709 BAK)
• House Histories – Light (728.028 LIG)
• This Old House

Your house may be pictured or described in:

• Patchogue… The Early Years – Henke (Q 974.725 V-PATCH HEN)
• Patchogue… in the Twentieth Century – Henke (Q 974.725 V-PATCH HEN)
• SPLIA Historical Structures Inventory (LI REF 720.9747 S Vols 1-8)
  Hundreds of pre-1900 structures were photographed and described.  The Local History Room’s volumes include buildings from Blue Point to Eastport and Medford, East Patchogue and North Patchogue.  The Village of Patchogue was not surveyed.
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlases
  The Sanborn Fire Atlases were issued irregularly between 1884-1926 with areas of Patchogue mapped.  Owners are not named, but Sanborn maps help pinpoint dates of construction.
• Library of Congress Panoramic Maps
  Click on your house’s location in the 1905/1906 hand drawn map to enlarge and print.

WHO LIVED IN MY HOUSE? (Or…Who’s Haunting It?)

• Celia M. Hastings Local History Room Map Collection
  The Beers Atlas maps (1853, 1873, 1888), Chase Wall Map (1857), Belcher-Hyde map (1902) and the Hyde Atlas map (1915) display homeowner’s names.
• Patchogue Business and Residential Directories (LI REF 384.6097)
  Older editions of telephone directories list business owners and residents by street address.  Find directories for 1864, 1868-1869, 1877, 1898, 1904, 1910, 1912, 1926, 1937 and 1947 in the Local History Room.
• Patchogue Advance (1926-1961), Long Island Advance (1961-1979) and Long Island Advance (2007-present)
  Search the Patchogue Advance and Long Island Advance in New York State Historic Newspapers and NewsBank for a name or street address (1926-1979, 2007-present)
• Long Island and Patchogue Vertical File Subject Headings Index
  Check here to see if your prior homeowner has a file of their own in the Celia M. Hastings Local History Room.
• The Index to Birth, Marriage and Death Announcements in the Long Island Advance covers the years 1876-1926 and may lead to information on families who once lived in your house.
• Federal and State Censuses
  On the Patchogue-Medford Library database page, find the “Genealogy” section.  Search censuses for people’s occupations, spouses, children, ages and birthplaces.
• New York State Vital Records Index
  The Vital Records Index microfiche covers NYS births (1881-1937), marriages (1881-1962) and deaths (1880-1962) and may illuminate the lives of prior owners of your home.  Does not include all of New York City.

OTHER RESOURCES (But not from too far beyond…)

• Patchogue Village Clerk (14 Baker Street, Patchogue)
  The Village Clerk has property ownership records from 1960 to the present.
• Suffolk County Clerk’s Office – Researching the History of Your House
  Suffolk County’s Archivist explains how to research your house and its previous owners through deeds and records at the County Center in Riverhead.
• Family Search
  Searching here can save you a trip to Suffolk County records in Riverhead.  Search “United States, New York Land Records, 1630-1975”.