In 1845, a journal entry by Daniel M Tredwell describes the house as having been erected twenty years earlier by a doctor from Manhattan who was said to have been very rich and had mysteriously disappeared after three years. It was also claimed that a woman was murdered there sometime after that. Tredwell approximates the house is two hundred feet south of the Merrick Road. A private cemetery is on the north side of the road and to the west of George Smith’s homestead.

Personal Reminiscences of Men and Things on Long Island

photo c 2007

Freeport Long Island History: Lost Freeport 

– Presently Grand Avenue, Freeport

John J Randall and William G Miller, popular and successful builders based in Greenpoint Brooklyn, move the Bell Oaks House which is located on land recently acquired by Randall, towards North Main Street to the east. They build for themselves matching summer residences upon that same site. By this time Randall has already begun laying roads and constructing other houses in this general area which is newly designated as Randall Park. Prior to this North and South Main Street, South Ocean Avenue (Carman’s Lane), Merrick Road (Fulton Street), Bayview Avenue (Coe’s Neck Road) are primarily the only other areas with houses and these are mostly homesteads which include farms. Freeport’s commercial properties are along South Main Street as well as Freeport Creek and protruding to the west of Main along Merrick Road. Construction of the Randall Park section kicks off a succession of development, much in part by Randall & Miller.This image is a view facing north towards the Randall Park area around the time this period begins. Randall Avenue runs west from the foreground, Ocean Avenue runs from south to north in the background. If Randall and Millers’s matching homes, north of Randall Avenue, are already built at the time of this photograph then they are just out of the frame to the right.

Long Island Memories Digitization Project

The houses pictured on Randall and Ocean Avenues are likely among some of the earliest built by Randall in Freeport and still stand today. They are shown respectively as photographed Mar 16, 2011

– Some accounts say c Summer 1884

– The D Wesley Pine residence on the north east corner of Fulton Street and Ocean Avenue where the post office presently stands

– A E  and John R Bedell’s farm including the Bell Oaks House and portions of John Mead’s, Robert Porterfield’s, and Samuel Smith’s farms

– Presently north Freeport, west of Main Street

Randall’s 2nd Freeport residence at northeast corner of Randall Avenue and Grove Street

Miller’s 1st Freeport residence at northwest corner of Randall and Ocean Avenues

From bottom to top along Randall Avenue above Main Street: the Bell Oaks house, Randall’s house, Miller’s house

https://cdm15281.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15281coll12/id/3804/rec/5

https://cdm15281.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15281coll12/id/2337/rec/2