Frank Melville Memorial Park

Frank Melville Memorial Park occupies about thirty acres in Setauket, on Long Island's north shore, around the Setauket Millpond. It was dedicated in 1937 by the wife and son of philanthropist Frank Melville, Jr., as a memorial and a gift to the community. The park holds five contributing buildings and two stone arch bridges: Miller's Cottage, a 1936-37 mill with a working water wheel, a 1941 post office, the 1922 Bates House and a 1920s barn. Architect Richard Haviland Smythe handled the design and restoration work, and George Strehan designed the bridges. The Melville family wanted to preserve the mill site and echo the area's eighteenth and early-nineteenth century heritage. The park is considered locally significant for recreation, as it interprets the historic mill and millpond, and for architecture. Its period of significance runs from 1936 to 1958, when work on the Bates House was completed. The park is owned by a nonprofit foundation and has remained open to the public since 1937.