A Glance at Cleaves Point through the Years by Donna Kenny

A History of the Property and Neighborhood

In past centuries the name Cleaves was a familiar one in Greenport and East Marion. On 19th century maps it was sometimes spelled Cleeves. In 1856 a builder named Orange Cleaves constructed a home at the head of Sterling Creek for a wealthy New York City client. That splendid structure would later be deeded to the Eastern Long Island Hospital Association to establish Greenport’s new hospital, which at the time was the only hospital east of Mineola, New York. In 1873 four houses existed on Shipyard Lane, one resided in by a Mrs. Cleeves who occupied the third house from the North Road on the lane’s east side. As a point of interest, the builder Orange Cleaves had a son named Rocky Cleaves whose Front Street home in Greenport sat on the lot between the present Bartlett House Inn and St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church.

By the late 19th century a wealthy gentleman named Latham A. Fish owned land known as Cleaves Point, situated directly on Gardiners Bay to the west of Shipyard Lane, East Marion, New York. Though not known for certain, it is possible the family may have been related to Jonathan Fish Latham of Groton, Connecticut who owned Orient Point circa 1800.

In 1889 Latham Fish hired Greenport contractor Parker Moore to build a handsome three story bay front home on his land at the end of Shipyard Lane. For several decades the Fish family summered in their large home at Cleaves Point. Some members commuted regularly from Wall Street by train and even private hydroplane. The design and landscape of the Fish estate have been compared to that at  “Cumsett“, the elegant North Shore estate of the Marshall Field family still in existence at Lloyd’s Neck, Long Island.

The Fish mansion with its cupola of leaded glass commanded a superb view of Gardiner’s Bay. It was prominently situated at the point of land approximately between where Cleaves Point Condominiums Buildings 2 and 3 are now. Directly opposite the mansion was the family’s boat dock. Remnants of old pilings are still visible at low tide.

The rear of the imposing house faced the bay. Large columns supported a huge porch designed to channel prevailing southeasterly winds. At the front entrance to the home a porte cochere extended over the adjacent driveway to shelter passengers arriving and departing as vehicles drove underneath its protective roof. A long circular drive wound its way between two handsome entrances on Shipyard Lane.

Just a little further past the rise in the road as you travel north, on the west side near the road, sat the home of Martin and Edith Beck. Mr. Beck was the caretaker and gardener for the Fish estate. Back then Shipyard Lane was a rural road, bordered along its half mile length on both the east and west sides with young maple trees that Mr. Beck planted. Over time his trees grew like gentle giants. Their branches gradually extended across the road to form a leafy canopy under which one traveled, certainly at a more leisurely pace than today, to the sparkling bay waters at the end of the lane. At the start of our 21st century many of the original maples have disappeared, victims of storm damage over the years. And many of the fragile old trees that still shade the lane are gnarled and bent by the decades’ storms.

Shipyard Lane originally stretched southward into the bay for approximately another 200 feet. The seasons’ turbulent hurricanes and wintry nor’easters have caused Gardiners Bay floods to wash away as many as three utility poles.

When the Fish estate was thriving family and friends arrived through one of two gates. Martin Beck, a man admired for his robust energy and remarkable caretaker talents, built the gates’ four sturdy pillars atop which were huge flower boxes, constructed from cement and local stones. It’s easy to imagine the massive flower boxes filled with bright blooms. One pair of stone pillars leads now to the Cleaves Point overflow parking area. The second gate stood approximately where the main Cleaves Point entrance is today.

Mr. Beck built and managed an extensive greenhouse on the estate, over sixty-feet in length. Its ample size must have supplied the Fish family and their guests, as well as the Beck family and neighbors, with an abundance of vegetables and flowers. 

At the northernmost border of the estate stood an extensive red cedar trellis supported by sixteen stout cement columns. Standing like eight pairs of towering sentinels, they formed a handsome grape arbor. How serenely the arbor provided relief from summer’s heavy heat, perhaps inviting visitors to stroll barefoot along its cool slate and flagstone path.

Dug into the ground near the arbor was a large ornamental fish pond, also built of cement. It was very likely filled with goldfish and large koi. Adjacent to the pond was a thirty foot long gracefully curving cement bench, offering a cool corner in which to relax after a vigorous day’s sail on the bay.

Many wealthy families with summer homes on the East End fell onto hard times by the end of the 1930’s, due to the combined devastation let loose from the Great Depression and the powerful 1938 Hurricane.  During the years following World War II the Fish family’s fortunes began an irreversible decline. It is believed that Mr. and Mrs. Fish had no children. By the late 1940’s Mrs. Fish was widowed and gradually stopped coming to the estate on Shipyard Lane.  A Miss Julia Fish was the last family member to occupy the home.

During ensuing years the deserted Fish mansion and smaller buildings on the estate were utterly abandoned and left to decay. At one point local fire departments sought to use it as a practice fire school, but the insurance company for the adjacent oyster factory, just across the road, objected due to concern for the strong shoreline winds.

Then early on the still morning of Sunday, April 11, 1965 a fire of unknown origin raged out of control and completely destroyed the seventy-six year old manse. On the windless night of the blaze, East Marion and Greenport fire departments responded to the alarm when it was called in at about one o’clock in the morning. Some members of the East Marion and Oyster Ponds fire departments, who had been new recruits in the 1960’s, still remember fighting a “mass of roaring flames” that spring morning more than a half century ago.

A front page article in The Suffolk Weekly Times edition of April 6, 1965 reported on the fire and stated that “Due to the ravages of time and vandalism, the once handsome home (had become) a  deserted wreck.”  The newspaper also noted the home’s location “on the shore front property now owned by Theodore and Bernard Kaplan of Centereach, L.I.”

Opposite the Fish estate at the east side of Shipyard Lane is a now derelict oyster factory. Known previously as Blue Point Oyster Farm, it was owned variously in the 1940’s and 1950’s either locally or by General Foods. Towering mounds of oyster shells were piled high on the property. Older residents also recall a modest boat building operation at the site that made small rowboats with a pointed bow called “sharpies”. This, perhaps, may be the origin of the Shipyard Lane name. In the 1940’s a gentleman named Wallace King sold bait and rented rowboats at the very end of the road.

Walking west along the beach one finds what had been a large dairy farm dating back to the late 1800’s. It was owned by Trowbridge Hollister, whose land extended all the way to the North Road (Route 25). An original barn remains today. His bay front home has been replaced in modern times by a seasonal cottage community.

Next moving westward was the property of J. H. Wiggins who, at the start of the 19th century, owned twenty acres heading due north alongside the Hollister property and also abutted Gull Pond.  On that land now, looking out to Gardiner’s Bay, sits a much admired and beautifully restored large Victorian home. This structure is the former main house of the old Merkel estate, built from the Merkel meat (and Hormel ham) fortune after the property left the Wiggins family.  

Martin Beck had been the Merkels’ gardener prior to becoming caretaker of the Fish estate. On the Merkel property sat a small ice house, later turned into a children’s playhouse. In keeping with the then common practice of moving houses by horse, oxen and truck, Martin Beck moved the tiny house to the east side of Shipyard Lane. It’s still in the neighborhood. The same small cottage is nestled in the backyard of 1895 Shipyard Lane and can be viewed from the road.

The charming yellow house at 1895 Shipyard Lane, the fourth one on the east side of the road as you travel north, was formerly a carriage house and later a playhouse, too, on the Merkel estate. Mr. Beck readily moved it, also, to Shipyard Lane as a wedding gift to his daughter and son-in-law.

Finally, Martin and Edith Beck’s own caretaker cottage from the Fish estate came to rest long ago at the end of the Fire Road behind the oyster factory. It is the last house on the right, and has been much modified since the Becks inhabited it. If you walk down the Fire Road, observe the huge sumac tree midway down on your right. Across from it is a handsome black walnut tree and, further ahead at the edge of the field notice the attractive stand of more sumac, a species seldom found clustered together today.

Vine covered ruins of the old arbor, bench, greenhouse and pond from the former Fish estate can still be found at the present site of Cleaves Point Condominiums. These vestiges of leisure lives from long ago are overrun now with wild rose, honeysuckle, prickly briars and ivy. If you do venture in search of Cleaves Point’s secret garden, the best time to explore is winter when leaves are off the trees. And finally, if you happen to discover a pair of small marked graves, let us know because you’ve found the Fish family’s two pet dogs, buried long ago just north of our shed and boat storage area.

None of the above history would have been possible to obtain without the assistance of Sue Hallock as well as the generous help received from Don H. Boerum of Orient; Antonia Booth, Southold Town Historian; Amy Folk, archivist, Oyster Ponds Historical Society; Tom Monsell, Greenport Village Historian; Gordon and Nathalie Rackett of East Marion; Bob Scott, Southold Tax Assessor; Jeff Walden, reference librarian at Mattituck-Laurel Library; and Eleanor Latham Williams of Orient. 

“A Glance at Cleaves Point Through the Years” which includes – Section 1.1 - A History of the Property & Neighborhood and Section 1.2 - Early Development of Cleaves Point of this Manual are dedicated to the memory of friends and neighbors at Cleaves Point who remain in our hearts when we walk the beach, breathe the air and sleep beneath the stars.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this at least as much as I did writing it. In your own travels as you make new discoveries please share them so the Cleaves Point story may continue.

Finally may we always remember to treasure and preserve what we, and surely so many others before and after us, are grateful to have found here beside Gardiners Bay   -   a deep and abiding sense of peace and harmony.    

Donna Kenny

April 2006

Revised May 2009

In August 2011 Donna was kind enough to provide Cleaves Point with the file she used to prepare the original history she authored in 2006. Donna’s document was then divided into the new Sections (as outlined above) of the Owners Manual that the Board adopted in August 2011 and revised in December 2018.                

Editor’s Note: Donna Kenny was a longtime owner and former Member of the Board.