L&M Publications
Merrick Life • Bellmore Life • Freeport-Baldwin Leader • Wantagh-Seaford Citizen

A For Sale sign has been taken down, as the home now awaits word regarding whether it will be torn down.

The Town of Hempstead Landmarks Preservation Commission issued a challenge to a diverse group of Bellmore residents to come up with a plan to purchase the Stevens house at 2396 Bellmore Avenue and save the house for landmark status, or possibly lose the house to a wrecking ball and subdivision of the property.

The challenge was made at a Landmarks Preservation Committee meeting on Tuesday in the Old Courthouse after Dave Weiss, Bellmore attorney and fiduciary for the Stevens estate, said that an interested party offered $250,000 to raise the house and subdivide the property to build two houses on the 125ft. x150ft. piece of land.

Mr. Weiss added that a portion of the gains from the sale of  the property would go to two animal rights groups in Bellmore, Animal Lifeline and Bobbi and the Strays. "Both of these groups are in need of funds to keep up their work," Mr. Weiss told Bellmore Life, or they could go out of business.

But Bellmore resident Christine Heller, who put in the application to have the house declared a landmark and save it from the wrecking ball, was optimistic that something could be done to save the house, built in 1923 and considered among the last of the distinctive bay-style architectural houses that were prominent from the 1920s to the 1950s, when baymen were an integral part the South Shore.

"We need to preserve this house so that our children will see what the early history of Bellmore was like," Bellmore resident Marie Troscher told Bellmore Life at the meeting.  "Kids need to know the local history."

Bellmore resident Bob Harter expressed mixed feelings, however, explaining that the beneficial impact in selling the house seemed logical. "It's the reality vs. the dreamland," he remarked, equating the dreamland with preserving a bit of history as a means of remembering the past.

Ms. Heller was accompanied by Eileen Casazza of the Bellmore Preservation Group, and county Legislator Dave Denenberg, in addition to several other Bellmore residents, one who knew bayman John Stevens when he owned a boat shop at the end of Bellmore Avenue. "Every time I go past the house it reminds me of those days," he said.

Ms. Casazza told Bellmore Life that many in the neighborhood may not want to pay attorneys to take the subdivision issue to the Town of Hempstead's zoning Board of Appeals to have the subdivisions halted. BPG has halted several developers from bringing subdivisions into Bellmore neighborhoods. It was also instrumental in defeating White Castle's application to open a restaurant in Bellmore.

Mr. Stevens helped build many of the causeway bridges - including the Robert Moses Causeway bridge - using his tugboat to ferry supplies. His father Charles built the house on Bellmore Avenue and had ferry service from Bellmore to High Beach in the 1920s.

Mr. Denenberg said part of the Open Space Initiative could be used to purchase the home under the right circumstances. He even noted the Environmental Bond Act could still have some funds available. But he also admitted it could be a hard sell during the county's difficult economic climate.

Read the options Ms. Heller has available to her to help save the house in next week's issue of Bellmore Life.

By Doug Finlay

Doug Finlay is the assistant editor for Bellmore Life newspaper. He is also an award-winning writer for L&M Publications.