St. James FD-Friedes Hotel burns

February 20, 1923 This hotel was somewhere on Jericho Turnpike in what is now Nesconsets Fire District. Smithtown Fire Department sent companies to the scene. Referenced in the “History of the Smithtown Fire Department 1956” as follows: “We receievd a frantic call from the St. James Eagle Hook and Ladder Company to help put out the disastrous fire that claimed Freides Hotel on Jericho Turnpike in Nesconset”

The Middle Country Road Hotel was originally Mother Friede’s. It was located on Jericho Turnpike near the intersection with Lake Avenue toward Saint James (South side of the street, 660 Middle Country Road-Academy fence company is there now. Frank was her son and inherited it before he bought the Riverside Inn. . There was a regular cliental of traveling salesmen. Mother Friede owned a home on Lake Avenue, Saint James. All of the Friede’s are all buried in St. Patrick’s cemetery, Smithtown.