The Oyster Bay Enterprise-Pilot is celebrating its 135th anniversary. It has been an interesting ride, which began in 1880 as Halstead Holloway Frost decided to establish the East Norwich Enterprise in a building behind the Oseola Hotel, the site of the Town of Oyster Bay meetings at the time.
John Hammond’s Oyster Bay Remembered gave information about the Enterprise. John Remsen was the editor of the paper, which was printed on the second floor of the building just north of what is now Rothmann’s Steakhouse.
He told the story that in March 1887, the East Norwich Athletic Association founded the Surprise baseball team. Enterprise editor John Remsen was the ENAA secretary. Their first game was played in the field on Vernon Avenue. Members of the community donated funds to buy them uniforms and Enterprise publisher Halstead Frost gave $3. The total cost for the team’s gray shirts, caps and trousers with blue belts and stockings came to $35.50.
Remsen wrote a rousing editorial in the Feb. 5, 1889, issue after a fire at the Gideon Franklin barn, located north of the hotel, that almost took out the newspaper office. A couple of brave young ladies dumped water from the windows of the building onto its walls, saving the print shop. Remsen asked the community to form their own fire company, as he had three years before. It took 20 more years before the East Norwich Volunteer Fire Company was formed in 1942, said Hammond.
The newspaper location was an auspicious site in what Hammond, Oyster Bay Town historian, characterized as the crossroads of the town, on Route 25A and Route 106. The north/south road between Hicksville and Oyster Bay is the one taken by Amos Boreum in the 1800s, as he brought people in his stagecoach from the train station in Hicksville to his coach stop in Oyster Bay where today the LIRR original station stands.
Years later, Oyster Bay Pilot editor Albert Loren Cheney wrote in 1919 in his Personal Memoirs of the Home Life of the Late Theodore Roosevelt, “’Uncle Amos’ Boreum gave little ‘Teddy’ many rides on top of his coach in the early days.”
It was there, near the LIRR station, that Robert Townsend and his brother Edward, already the publisher of the Seymour Journal of Seymour, CT, decided to put their newspaper, the Oyster Bay Pilot, in a brick building on Audrey Avenue in 1885. The property was part of Col. Townsend’s apple orchard that he sold to the town in hopes of bringing the LIRR to Oyster Bay. The Oyster Bay Branch of the LIRR arrived in Glen Head on Jan. 23, 1865, and by April 19, 1867, it got as far as Glen Cove. In 1869 it stopped in Locust Valley and Col. Townsend campaigned to have them continue the single track on to Oyster Bay, which he succeeded in doing in 1889 on June 24, to be exact… when the final four miles were added in hopes of being a way to get to Boston, via the ferry, a project which failed.
In Oyster Bay Remembered, author Hammond quotes the Enterprise Pilot as saying on Aug. 31, 1889, “As our railroad depot nears completion we begin to admire it, and can safely say that it will be handsome, capacious and convenient. A porte cochere has been added, which apart from its beauty will be fully appreciated in stormy weather.”
He added that the Brooklyn Eagle estimated the cost at $6,000.
The important part of this story is that Robert Townsend campaigned successfully for the railroad to come to Oyster Bay and enhance the area. That would have included bringing people to what was at the time a resort area since there were about six hotels doing a brisk business in the area. And according to Hammond, boarding houses and bed and breakfasts abounded for those with smaller pocketbooks. The newspaper was into bringing business into town.
In his Memoirs, Cheney described the Oyster Bay he knew at the time: much still rings true, only some names have changed.
“Oyster Bay is delightfully situated on the north side of Long Island, distant one hour’s ride from Manhattan and Brooklyn Boroughs. Population 6,500.
“Oyster Bay has a picturesque frontage, consisting of two of the finest sheets of water in the world, known as the east bay and the west bay. Its table-lands, magnificent hills, many miles of splendid macadamized roads, romantic streets, cooling breezes and pure spring water, make it one of the greatest health resorts in America. The vital statistics of the town show a yearly death rate of only 12 in 1,000.
“Some of the finest and most costly residences of this country, owned by prominent men, are located in
Oyster Bay.
“On Centre Island is the home of the famous Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht Club; and many celebrated yachts anchor in the harbor.
“The Oyster Bay Bank, the North Shore Bank, a fine Union High School, a Free Library, a Board of Trade, six well-supported Churches, Titus’ General machine shop, Davenport’s Hotel, Sagamore Hotel on the bay, the Oyster Bay Inn, an Opera House and two weekly newspapers are among the notable institutions. Oyster Bay is famed for its splendid drives, as well as its oysters and fine fishing.”
The East Norwich Enterprise continued printing until it published its last edition on June 3, 1926, and joined the Pilot to become the Oyster Bay Enterprise Pilot from then to 1953.
