Cold Spring Harbor, NY (New York)
11724
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Video Tour of Cold Spring Harbor
Welcome to Historic Cold Spring Harbor
Cold Spring Harbor is a tiny former whaling village on the North Shore, between the larger towns of Huntington and Oyster Bay. The first church in cold spring harbor, St. John's Episcopal, is a Long Island landmark. It was erected in 1836 in what is now the village of Laurel Hollow.
Cold Spring Harbor is, perhaps, most famous for its genetics lab, where Barbara McClintock grew her corn and Drs. Watson and Crick first happened upon DNA.
Founded 1883 - The Cold Spring Harbor Fish hatchery and Aquarium is an Aquatic Environmental Education Center located on Route 25a also in Laurel Hollow.
The natural beauty of the area is breathtaking in all season and weather conditions. From early morning fog to rainbow's after the storm, Cold Spring Harbor provides a peaceful backdrop for this wonderful historic community.
The Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities Gallery is located on the corner of Main Street & Shore Road. It features changing exhibits related to Long Island area history. Cold Spring Harbor Park backs the Gallery with open fields and harbor views.
Numerous homes and commercial buildings dating to the whaling days line the quarter-mile "Captain's Row" business district, where you can buy anything from chocolate bonbons to dollhouse furniture. The buildings and displays have a definite Currier and Ives feel. A walk along Main Street in Cold Spring Harbor is like sauntering into a village downtown of the mid-19th century, with brick sidewalks, white picket fences and Victorian-age facades masking modern boutiques.
The Huntington Historic Preservation Commission approved landmark status for the village in 1976. Several landmarks along Main Street remind visitors of the whaling era, when the masts of the tall ships, rather than the brightly colored sails of sloops, dotted the harbor. The former Methodist Church circa 1842 is an official landmark of the Town of Huntington which is listed in the National Registry of Historic places. The stores on Main Street, with their century-old exteriors and modern interiors filled with expensive glass art, antiques, clothing and specialty foods, reflect the blend of past and present. The village itself feels more like Sag Harbor than North Shore, with Victorian-style captain’s homes and a busy little waterfront. A fabulous collection of colonial clapboards lines Harbor Road, which runs out of the village; and up Snake Hill Road are grand estates of the Gilded Age. Cold Spring's first post office was established in 1825, and that July the post office and the community were renamed Cold Spring Harbor. Heading east from the village area we see more former captain's homes and other points of interest.
Between the years 1836 and 1862, the town of Cold Spring Harbor supported a fleet of nine whaling vessels. The Whaling Museum preserves these romantic and historical times. Its collection includes a fully equipped whaleboat, whaling implements, marine paintings, ship models, a diorama of Cold Spring Harbor as a whaling port in 1850, and a permanent exhibition highlighting Long Island's whaling industry. 700 scrimshawed items produced by whalemen of the nineteenth century are also on display. The Museum supports marine mammal conservation through its education programs and exhibits. Many family activities are offered throughout the year, including special videos, slide shows, and workshops, as well as outings such as Whale Watching. There is something for the entire family to enjoy just about every weekend. The Museum is located on main Street at the Turkey lane intersection. Museum offices are housed next door in the 1894 home of whaling Captain James Wright. Visit the Whaling Museum daily from Tuesday - Sunday, 11am - 5pm. Open summer Mondays. or call for further information Group Programs are available daily.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's DNA Learning Center located at 334 Main Street is a unique science museum that contains exhibits related to DNA research. it is also a bio-technology museum. The building dating from the 1920's was the original East Side School which was moved to the Goosehill Road facility in the 1950's. In 1959 when the school district was formed, it housed the district office and primary center. When the school age population declined in the 1970's the property was sold to Cold Spring Harbor Labs.
The Cold Spring Harbor school district encompasses the villages of Laurel Hollow, Lloyd Harbor, Lloyd Neck and Cold Spring Harbor. it is made up of 1 Primary school grades Kindergarten & 1, 2 elementary schools, grades 2 thru 6, and a combined Junior/Senior High school grades 7 thru 12. The district office is housed in the old East Side School building along with the Goosehill Primary School.
As the population of the district grew in the mid 1990's, the decision was made to reclaim the space in the partly vacant Community Center which housed the district office and library to create a primary school for grades kindergarten and 1. The emphasis at Goosehill Primary School is to foster literacy. The program begins by building on the language and experiences that the youngest children bring to school. The entire staff works collaboratively to provide appropriate learning experiences that will contribute to the needs of each child in all areas of development—socially, emotionally, physically, and cognitively. Each child is viewed as a unique person with individual learning styles, interests, and levels of development . As the district continues to grow, the primary school has expanded. Playground facilities as well as more classrooms have been added. Large playing fields at the property are also used by the Cold Spring Harbor/Huntington soccer teams on weekends in the spring and fall. the Cold Spring Harbor library was housed in the Community Center building since the late 1980's. The growth of the school district continued into the 2000's and there was a need for more classroom space for Goosehill Primary School. In 2005 work was begun on a new library facility for the village. The new library facility is located on Route 25a overlooking the harbor. Construction began in 2005 and was completed by the fall of 2006. The completed building is a testimony to the communities desire to preserve the rich hertiage and beauty of the area. Views of the harbor from the library add to the tranquility of the setting.
The Nature Conservancy owns and operates numerous nature preserves on Long Island. Uplands Farm Sanctuary, a part of the Cold Spring Harbor labortory located on Lawrence Hill Road across from the High School is open daily, sunrise-sunset. A 93 acre preserve located on a former dairy farm, the farm is the headquarters of the Nature Conservancy's Long Island Chapter.
The Cold Spring Harbor High School main entrance on Turkey lane welcomes visitors and students. The facility is tucked away and cannot be seen from the road. The Seahawks Booster Club, a parent organization strongly supports the athletic programs of the district. The orignial facility built in the early 1960's was a sprawling one story structure on a 75 acre campus. In the early 2000's the school was expanded adding more classroom space as well as expanded auditorium and physical education areas. The Ralph Whitney field house provides athletic facilities for the many award winning athletic teams to workout and practice. Tennis courts and over 50 acres of fields provide more than ample space for all sports and teams for both junior and senior high students.
A Project Adventure course is located on the campus. As a supplement to a broader curriculum, Adventure is a very effective tool that will enhance the physical education experience and learning for students and teachers alike. A new state of the art football field and surrounding track provide a quality environment for the winning teams of Cold Spring Harbor with an electronic scoreboard which was donated by the Seahawks Booster Club, another example of the extent of community support for the athletic programs of the district.
As you enter the village area across from the new library you will see a waterfront village park named for Long Island's homegrown singer-songwriter, Billy Joel -- whose first album was titled "Cold Spring Harbor." A sign to honor the community's fine high school athletes and their outstanding accomplishments in state competiton was erected in the park. Dedicated in the late 1990's the park provides a tranquil place to relax at water's edge perhaps reading a book from the new library which is just across the street.
Cold Spring Harbor State Park is comprised of 40 acres of hilly terrain that offer scenic vistas of the Cold Spring Harbor. It features a mixed hardwood forest with notable large oak specimens that measure three feet in diameter, as well as thickets of wild mountain laurel. The area is ideal for observing spring and fall migrations of a variety of songbirds, and is home to great horned owls and red-tailed hawks. The park serves as the northern trailhead of the Nassau Suffolk Greenbelt Trail that extends to Bethpage State Park and eventually the south shore of Nassau County.
Cold Spring Harbor is 35 miles from midtown Manhattan. The ride to Penn Station takes approximately an hour on the Long Island Railroad.
For further information about this fine community visit Long Island Village Realty located in neighboring Syosset. Phone 516-921-0220.
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