Southampton Town Considers Historical Preservation of 18th-century Tuttle House in Remsenburg

The Southampton Town Board debated on August 13 a proposal to designate a Remsenburg property that dates back to before the American Revolutionary War as a historical landmark.

The property, which is located at 126 South Country Road, is also known as the Tuttle Family House. Built in 1768, it is one of the oldest properties in the entire area. According to Stephanie Davis, a Board Member of the Southampton Landmarks and Historic Districts Board, the house is an integral part of the history of Remsenburg, as the Tuttle family played a crucial role in developing the area for over 200 years.

“We recommended this house for landmarking because it possesses a special character of historic and aesthetic interest,” Stephanie Davis told the town board. “This is due to its long history with the Tuttle family, whose members resided in Remsenburg and the Speonk hamlet for over two centuries, and whose family name is associated with two private cemeteries in the community as well as a street.”

The Tuttle Family House itself has historical significance within Remsenburg. It was used, for a time, as a boarding house. It was also the site of the first post office in Speonk, which was the previous name for the entirety of Remsenburg, but now delineates only a portion of the community.

This saltbox house in Remsenburg is just one of the many historical structures in the area attributed to contributions from members of the Tuttle family. Many of the properties surrounding the Tuttle Family House could be traced back to the Tuttles. The property immediately west of the family house is the site of the Remsenburg Academy, built by a Tuttle family member as a prestigious and elite school. Immediately west of the academy is yet another Tuttle property, serving as another boarding house for the community.

The roughly 10,000 members of the Tuttle lineage, descendants of the first settlers of what is now Southold, have had a long historical tie with Long Island. Through landmarking and historical preservation, officials hope to ensure that the origin and longstanding heritage of local communities like Remsenburg remain protected.