Orient Historic District

Orient Historic District covers about sixty acres at the heart of the hamlet of Orient, on the southwestern side of Long Island's north fork. It contains more than one hundred dwellings and public buildings built between the late eighteenth and late nineteenth centuries, all still in use. Cape Cod houses are the most common early type, joined by Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate and Second Empire examples and many vernacular frame buildings. Notable features include Orient Wharf, first built by Richard Shaw in 1740 and enlarged in 1829 and 1848, the Richard Shaw House of about 1730, and Poquatuck Hall of 1870. The district was recognized because it preserves the look and feel of a rural farming and maritime community. Its modest homes show little difference between wealthy and humble builders, commercial development has been nearly excluded, and picket fences and shade trees maintain a consistent setting despite suburban growth elsewhere in eastern Suffolk County.