Oyster Bay History

To celebrate the centennial of Rotary -- the international club known for community service -- the Rotary Club of Oyster Bay initiated a truly grand project, commissioning a twelve foot tall statue of Theodore Roosevelt on horseback in Rough Rider uniform. Cast from an original mold created in 1921 by renowned sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor, the statue now graces the entrance to Oyster Bay Hamlet. It took two years, $300,000, and a lot of helping hands to bring T.R. home.

Dagmar Fors Karppi outlines the story in the Oyster Bay Enterprise Pilot. Thomas A. Kuehhas celebrates it in a commemorative journal available from the Oyster Bay Historical Society bookstore.

The BBC recently sent a video crew to Oyster Bay to follow the trail of one of the founding families of America - the Townsends. In this case they were following Viscount Raynham, from Norfolk, England, the branch of the Townshend family that spells their name with an "h." Charles Raynham was returning to Oyster Bay after five years, to attend the annual meeting of the Townsend Society of America and to thank his cousins for helping raise $80,000 to restore the bells of St. Mary's Church on his family estate, Raynham Hall. The money was donated by Townsends in Great Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia.

Read the story in the Oyster Bay Enterprise Pilot.

An Oyster Bay Cove couple who are supporters of the [Raynham Hall] museum situated in the Townsend house recently donated two letters written by [Revolutionary War spy Robert] Townsend [aka Culper Jr.] enclosed in a signed first-edition copy of a book about Washington's spies written by Long Island historian Morton Pennypacker. The letters have notes in the margins written by Pennypacker. They were acquired in an online auction.

Read the story in Newsday.