The mission of SPLIA is to preserve Long Island's cultural heritage and historic environments.

Preservation Advocacy

As advocate for preservation on Long Island , SPLIA has been extending a helping hand to local groups interested in creating historic districts and saving our regions landmarks since 1948. Through in-house technical assistance, appearances at public hearings, organizing workshops, publishing our Preservation Notes newsletter, stewarding properties restricted by preservation covenants, and serving as a resource for individuals and organizations committed to the preservation of cultural resources, SPLIA seeks to make a future for Long Island's past.

House Museums

SPLIA owns or has under its auspices historic house museums running the length of Long Island. These distinctive buildings, which portray different aspects of the region’s history, include the Wyckoff House, a 17th-century Dutch farm house in East Flatbush, Rock Hall, a formal Georgian mansion in Lawrence, the Joseph Lloyd Manor, an 18th-century manor house at Lloyd neck, Sherwood-Jayne, an East Setauket farm complex, and the Custom House in Sag Harbor, home of the port’s first Custom master, Henry Packer Dering.

The houses are furnished with one of the most important assemblages of Long Islandiana, comprising over 3,000 objects and including masterpieces of regional decorative arts and craftsmanship. The Society also possesses significant archival and photographic collections in addition to a wealth of textiles, fine arts and pottery either owned or made on Long Island in period.

The Gallery

SPLIA’s Gallery in Cold Spring harbor opened in 1990. It provides a facility with flexible space for changing exhibitions and programming. The adaptively reused Carnegie-era library is open year round and features shows about Long island’s significant history and cultural heritage. The museum shop at the Gallery features an excellent collection of books and materials pertaining to Long Island’s local and regional history.

School Programs

A variety of innovative school discovery programs are held at SPLIA’s historic house museums and Gallery. These dynamic hands-on classes actively involve students in discovering and analyzing many aspects of Long Island history. Roll playing, object handling, house hunts, creative writing and art workshops are used to involve students in an exploration of the past. Each program includes extensive pre-visit kits with activities, original documents and thoughtful questions. A detailed brochure and a signed pre-visit video are available for the programs at Lloyd Manor.

Collections

The Society has an extensive collection of Long Island decorative arts that can be seen at periodic exhibits and on this web site (see Collections on home page). The majority of SPLIA’s collection is well documented in the book Long Island Is My Nation by Dean F. Failey. This book can be purchased by clicking on publications on our home page.

Publications

The publication of studies and catalogues concerning salient aspects of Long Island’s history and material culture is a longstanding tradition at the Society. Recently published studies include Long Island Country Houses and Their architects, 1860-1940; Discovering the African-American Experience in Suffolk County, 1620-1860; AIA Architectural Guide to Nassau; and Suffolk Counties, Long Island: and Between Ocean and Empire: An Illustrated History of Long Island. (pictures of a couple of our books)

Events

Throughout the year the Society holds a series of events including an Apple Festival in September at its Sherwood-Jayne House and an annual House Lecture in January hosted by an invited expert in the field of architecture or decorative arts.

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