Community Trust Prepares to Move Rubber Factory Houses

Setauket's historic rubber factory houses are on the move.

According to Community Trust president Cynthia Barnes, the three small buildings currently located on Setauket Fire District property on Old Town Rd. will be moved to a new site – the Bruce House property at 148 Main St. – within weeks. 

The houses were originally built in the 1890s to house immigrant workers employed at the rubber factory, which opened in Setauket during the late 1800s. It cost $20 a month and took four, sometimes more, full-time workers to pay the rent, Barnes said.

Since she first took on this project in 2001, the Community Trust has worked with the fire department, the Ways and Means Committee, the Town of Brookhaven Board of Zoning appeals, traffic control, and the police department to make it happen. After the completion of phase one, which includes relocation, stabilization and exterior restoration, the Community Trust will then plow on to phase two: restoration for adaptive reuse.

“Once they’re here we’re going to stabilize them and work on the exterior renovations while we go through the process of getting the permit for repurposing,” Barnes said. “We need a use that will not be a fiscal drain and yet we want to make sure we have some mechanism to tell their story and tell the story of immigration to this area.”

A spokesperson for New York State Assemb. Steve Englebright, D-Setauket, said he secured a $95,000 grant to support the project. The Three Village Community Trust has also been fundraising for the move.

Some have praised the project for its historical value.

“Those houses are an important part of not only the community heritage, but also a part of American industrial heritage,” said Frank Turano of the Three Village Historical Society.