Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Historic District

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory occupies a long, narrow strip of land along the western shore of Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island's north shore, about fifty miles east of Manhattan. The district brings together three linked institutions: a fish hatchery begun around 1880, the Biological Laboratory founded in 1890, and the Carnegie Institution's Station for Experimental Evolution founded in 1904. The site was earlier used for manufacturing and whaling, and early science took place in adapted industrial and residential buildings. Researchers here contributed to the study of Mendelian inheritance, including George Shull's work on corn and the concept of hybrid vigor, which shaped modern agricultural breeding. The campus has no formal master plan; its buildings, many in a small-scale Long Island domestic style, were repeatedly altered as science changed. The district holds 31 contributing buildings and 2 contributing structures, with later postmodern buildings by Charles Moore counted as non-contributing because of their age.