Passport to Historic Oyster Bay

I got my personal passport to historic Oyster Bay, Long Island from Ann (Mrs. Samuel D.) Parkinson, the mother of Peapod founders, Andrew and Thomas Parkinson. I met Ann while teaching Windows computing to her daughter. Ann introduced me to the Board of the Oyster Bay Historical Society, who commissioned me to build a new computer system for the Society and to develop its website.

The Society's Director, Thomas A. Kuehhas, and I got on famously, so much so that Judith and I now count Tom and his wife Robin among our personal friends. Guided by Tom's enthusiasm, energy, and practical scholarship, the Society has blossomed and now has outgrown its historic Earle-Wightman House headquarters, necessitating a full-court press to raise funds for a new building. You are invited to contribute by visiting the Society's homepage and making a donation.

Tom introduced me after a time to Andrew Batten, then Director of Raynham Hall Museum. That was a big deal at the time, because the Boards of the Historical Society and of Raynham Hall had been perpetually deadlocked in a feud to "own" Oyster Bay's history. As if there weren't enough history to go around.

Andrew, now succeeded by the vivacious and talented, Sarah Abruzzi, put me to work building a website for Raynham Hall, homestead of the Samuel Townsends, Revolutionary War characters and descendants of Oyster Bay's founding family. To help publicize it, and the Oyster Bay Historical Society, I also created the very active Genealogy Forum of Long Island, a message board forum on the history and genealogy of Long Island.

Which takes us to present. A few weeks ago, both Tom and Sarah's assistant, Education Coordinator Lisa Cuomo, asked me to put a brochure for the 2005 Passport to Historic Oyster Bay on their websites. This year, as in the past two years, we've identified the Passport in connection with events taking place at the Historical Society and at Raynham Hall. And we linked to the Passport website. But this year -- oops, no website.

The Passport to Historic Oyster Bay series comprises primarily the events of five Oyster Bay organizations, the Oyster Bay Historical Society, Raynham Hall Museum, Sagamore Hill, the summer home of Theodore Roosevelt, Planting Fields Arboretum (the latter two both National Park Service historic sites), and the Friends of the Arts. Together these groups put on exhibits, festivals, fairs, parades, demonstrations, concerts, picnics, neighborhood nights, tours, craft shows, historical re-enactments, the famous Oyster Bay Oyster Festival, and a lot more.

When we realized this great series had no website, we decided to build the Passport to Historic Oyster Bay website as a public service. Check out the Passport series. Great concerts -- including Nanci Griffith, Poncho Sonchez, Arlo Guthrie -- art exhibits, neighborhood nights, walking tours, haunted houses, waterfront activities, and history brought alive by exhibits and re-enacters. You're invited! Bring a friend.