Preservation group eyes Perkins electric plant
The old brick building on West Main Street in Riverhead sits tight to the Peconic River, next to a dam that has seen better days. Vines have grown up the sides and the slate roof needs a thorough cleaning.
While it looks abandoned, the 19th century building’s historic importance is hard to overstate: It once brought light to downtown Riverhead.
A man named John Perkins, born in England in 1812, arrived in Riverhead in 1828. Once he secured water rights on the Peconic River, he built a woolen mill along its banks that operated there until about 1902.
Mr. Perkins’ sons, John and Henry, inherited the business. Both were prominent in Riverhead politics and business. In 1888, according to Riverhead historian Richard Wines, the brothers acquired a 35-horsepower waterwheel and installed electrical generating equipment at the site, initially providing power to the area around the mill but later extending outward into the downtown area.
“This was one of the earliest electric companies on Long Island,” Mr. Wines wrote in an email. “A company in Greenport was setting up a generating plant at about the same time.”
The brick building was put up in 1898, Mr. Wines said, “to house a 150-horsepower steam engine and two new dynamos. When water was available, they used the waterwheels in the adjacent sluice, which is still visible, to generate electricity. The steam engine was utilized only when water power was insufficient.”
The former plant, one of the earliest power-generating facilities on Long Island, is one of seven historic sites that a group called Preservation Long Island, based in Cold Spring Harbor, says are endangered. The organization assembled its list based on recommendations from local historical societies and other interested parties.
Joining the Riverhead power plant on that list are Mill Pond House in Oyster Bay, which dates to the 1600s and Stepping Stones Lighthouse in North Hempstead.
In Riverhead, the Perkins plant competed with a second power plant owned by the Hallet brothers, which also served downtown.
“The two companies competed for customers in the downtown area, with lines from both companies strung on the same poles, until they merged into a single company in 1910,” according to Mr. Wines. “This new company installed a more powerful steam engine in 1911 and converted everything to the Westinghouse alternating current.
“The company provided service to other parts of Riverhead, and even to Westhampton, before being acquired by the Long Island Lighting Company in 1922 and connecting to its grid,” he added. “This plant was apparently shut down at that time.”
Those who care about preserving pieces of town history — such as the old Perkins building, including Mr. Wines and former Riverhead Town Board member George Bartunek — want to save both the structure and the site it sits on, which is currently owned by the Long Island Power Authority.
“It is a historically significant site,” Mr. Wines said in an interview. “It is one of the earliest generating plants on Long Island. The introduction of electric power was historic everywhere. But it’s also significant because its connection to Riverhead’s industrial heritage.”
Adjacent to the old building is a boat launch ramp maintained by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Canoes can be launched from the site. Supporters of preserving the building said that, given its access to the river, the site could make an excellent recreational area.
“That and public ownership would be ideal,” Mr. Wines said.
