Hamlet Churches

[Another View] - [Ann Wiswall Drawing] [Fish Weathervane]	Old South Haven Presbyterian Church, now located on the corner of South Country and Beaverdam Roads. It was moved to this location from Montauk Highway, at the goin' over of the Carman's River, in 1960, a distance of about 3 miles (although the actual distance traveled, because of intervening obstructions, was closer to 5 miles). The Parish was founded about 1740. The present setting of the church is a part of the property where James H. Post had his summer home. The Old Post Carriage House is still used by the congregation as a Parish Hall. It is presently undergoing extensive conservation and restoration.
St. James Episcopal Church was built about 1872 on Beaverdam Road. It originally had a short "gothic" bell tower; this original tower was destroyed in a hurricane and replaced with the current tower in 1961. Somehow, this tower seems more appropriate to the simple cedar shake church. [Ann Wiswall Drawing] Historical Picture
	The old Methodist Church is located on the south side of Beaverdam Road, just east of the Old South Haven Church. When built in abt. 1848, it had no steeple, and was across the road. Abt. 1872 it was moved and the steeple added. It was transferred, in a trade, to the Presbyterian Parish abt. 1945 in exchange for the Bellport Presbyterian Church. For a while, the Presbyterian congregation worshipped mostly in this building, mainly because it was better heated, with only occasional services at the South Haven Church (which was, unfortunately for the nose, also situated next to a duck farm). This property was sold abt. 1961 when the old South Haven building was moved and renovated and became the only parish church. It is now a private dwelling.
The old Congregational Meeting House. The Brookhaven Hamlet Congregationalists were organized about 1842, and soon built and met at this structure, now at the corner of South Country Rd. and Chapel Ave. In the late 1800's, it became the property of the Presbyterian Parish and was moved from across the road. It was then enlarged, the steeple added, and used as a community house and classrooms. It was sometimes referred to as "the Lecture Room." Abt. 1945, when the building exchanges took place between the Methodists in Bellport and the Presbyterians, it was sold and is now a private dwelling.