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Frank Melville Memorial Park and Sanctuary
The Frank Melville Memorial Park in Setauket was designed and built by Jennie Melville and her son Ward in memory of their husband and father Frank Melville. The horseshoe shaped park comprises five acres with another 20 acres to the north designated as a sanctuary. An addition five acres, belonging to the Three Village Garden Club, is designated as an aboretum. There are numerous walking trails through the sanctuary and aboretum, all circular in nature.
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| The Park contains a simulated grist mill (a wheel-no guts) which reflects the many grist mills that were built for the Setauket community. The first mill was completed about 1672 and provided power for grinding corn (corn meal), wheat (flour) and other grains grown by the early settlers. Wheat was an important and vital grain on Long Island until the Erie Canal brought cheaper grains from upstate New York, principally the Syracuse & Rochester areas. Following the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, grains and flour were also shipped along the Erie Canal and down the Hudson River to New York first from Ohio and then from other mid-western states. These cheaper grains and flour resulted in the destruction of the grain industry on Long Island and led to the closing of most grist mills both wind and water powered.
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| Farmers on Long Island gradually changed over to market crops such as califlower and potatoes to supply the food needs of the rapidly increasing New York City population. New York City became not only the point of arrival for vast numbers of immigrants from Europe but the point of departure for grains and other products from the burgeoning American mid-west. With the coming of the railroad to Long Island between the 1840s and the 1870s, farms, especially diary farms began to prosper and ship milk and milk products to New York City.
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