Community Corner

Notebook: Museum Acquires 'Stormy Skies' Painting

News from around Huntington.

The Heckscher Museum of Art has acquired "Stormy Skies, Long Island," a landscape painting by the 19th Century American artist Thomas Moran.

It is the first work to be purchased by The Heckscher Museum, on behalf of the Town of Huntington, with funds from the Town of Huntington Art Acquisition Fund. 
 That fund was established in 2012 as a result of a Town of Huntington Board-authorized sale of works from the original legacy collection at public auction. 

Moran, an English painter who settled in East Hampton in 1884. Long Island, was best known for his landscapes.

The Heckscher Museum is one of Huntington’s great treasures, and this acquisition will provide one more reason for art lovers from all over to visit and enjoy the museum,” Supervisor Frank Petrone said. “I congratulate the museum administration for turning artifacts in the museum collection that were no longer part of the core mission and had not been on view for decades into a significant acquisition.”

Sutherland Group Honored

The Huntington Town Board recently presented a proclamation to the Sutherland Building Group in recognition of the corporation’s 50 years in business in Huntington.

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  The group includes four companies that serve the construction and building trades: W.J. Northridge Construction Corporation; Metro Interior Distributors, Inc.; Hi-Lume Corporation; and Liberty Doorworks, Inc. Founded by Albert O. Sutherland, the business includes Sutherland’s wife, Ida; his daughter, Lorna;  and sons Jim and Matt.

The companies have supported numerous local charities, including Building Homes for Heroes, Long Island Youth for Christ, the PAL Sports Scholarship Fund, Harborfields Booster Club, as well as care package drives for armed services personnel, among other charitable endeavors.  

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Supervisor Frank P. Petrone presented the Sutherland family with a proclamation signed by all five Town Board members at the Greater Huntington Civic Group’s H.O.P.E. Awards dinner. Joining Supervisor Petrone in the presentation were Councilmen Mark Mayoka and Eugene Cook.

Gateway Park Property Purchased

The town has completed its purchase of a one-acre parcel at 12 Academy Pl., Huntington Station, as the latest acquisition in assembling the property to develop Gateway Park.

The purchase, which doubles the size of Gateway Park, includes a circa-1900 farmhouse that the Town plans to renovate (funded by a $370,000 state Heritage grant) and develop as a center for educational programs, perhaps on the history of Huntington Station. The house could also provide restrooms for the park, which currently is the site of a popular community garden.

The property is contiguous to the previously acquired parcels that have formed the 1.3 acres of Gateway Park.

 The farmhouse was once the center of a working dairy farm known as the Hillside Dairy. The farmhouse property has been in the hands of the Merksamer/Teich family for nearly a century and is a few yards away from the site of the first synagogue in Huntington, where the Teich family attended.

  The purchase price was $270,000, with the funding coming from the Town Environmental Open Space and Park Improvement Fund. The closing on the property occurred June 21.


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