Smithtown FD-Fire in the Homestead Museum on East Main Street

December 6, 1977. Faulty furnace leads to basement fire. Fire caused extensive damage to the dining room, which had just been renovated by the Smithtown Branch Preservation Association, which owns the building. The fire was discovered by Real Estate Exec Bob Lewis. He alerted the tenants on the upper floors and they all evacuated, at which time, Lewis called the fire department. The Homestead, part of which dates back to the 1600s was the residence of the Blydenburgh Family and then in the 1800s served as the law office of Judge John Lawrence Smith, Surrogate of Suffolk County and a founder of the St. James Episcopal Church. It is said that the upper portion of the historic house, reached only by ladder, served to house recalcitrant slaves for brief periods of isolation. Smithtown News 12-3-1977.