Typologies of Public & Natural Spaces in Three Village

as part of the Setauket Harbor Pond Park Master Plan Study

 

Joseph A. Betz, Architect
Professor & Former Chair

Department of Architecture & Construction Management

Farmingdale State College

State University of New York

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This work was presented to the Three Village Civic Association.

This is as an educational tool used at Farmingdale State College, SUNY

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​© Copyright 2024, All rights reserved.

 

In order to understand what the Setauket Harbor Pond Park may want to be, a list of the public and natural space typologies is provided below.  It can be used as a simple fit, or mis-fit, test to determine what features the park may want to have. (* Notes public & natural space is in a Historic District.)

(To understand the historic role of the public spaces, see the article by JB Jackson, "The American Public Space," The Public Interest, 74, (Winter 1984) pp. 52-65 Copyright © 1984 by National Affairs Inc.)

 

Primary Civic Public “Green” Spaces

Setauket Village Green*: Authentic 18th century public civic space designed to serve the church as the authoritative institution in the community.  (Private ownership)

Stony Brook Village Green & Hercules Pavilion*: 20th century Romantic New England Green revival space with a Post Office using a Greek temple front as symbol of governmental authority surrounded by small retail stores and a firehouse. (WMHO)

Old Field Point Lighthouse Park: Grounds highlighting a prototypical historic lighthouse built in 1868 as a government authority, now a village hall as a government authority.

Secondary Public "Green" Spaces

Kaltenborn Commons: Park marks an informal entrance to the Village of Old Field.  This space lacks a building signifying an institutional authority and appears to be an unplanned triangular parcel defined by two roads.

Patriots Rock Historic Site*: Revolutionary War battle sight. Mostly wooded park with small seating area. (TVCT)

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Formally Designed Parks  

Frank Melville Park*: Romantic English Landscape Garden of ponds, paths and bridges with some additional natural landscape paths for exploration behind the formal stylistic garden. (FMMF)

Old Field County Park: equestrian program facility park with winding path at edge of West Meadow Creek. 

T. Bayles Minuse Mill Pond Park*: Small organic garden design that has become the de facto entrance to Avalon Nature Preserve. (WMHO)

 

Nature Preserves

(Large natural landscape with quiet winding paths for exploration in wooded, open field or wetlands settings.  Most are Town, County and State-owned lands)

Ashley Schiff Preserve (on SUNY campus)

Avalon Nature Preserve (The Paul Simons Foundation) 

Conscience Bay - Little Bay State Tidal Wetlands

Erwin J. Ernst Marine Conservation Center (WMHO)

Flax Pond Tidal Wetlands Area

Forsythe Meadows County Park*

Laurel Ridge Setauket Woods Nature Preserve

Patriot’s Hollow State Forest

Sherwood-Jayne Nature Trails* (PLI)

West Meadow Wetlands Preserve 
 

Bike & Walking Trails

Setauket Greenway Trail

Trustees Road

 

Historic Preservation & Land Trust Parcels: Non-profit Organizations

(Maintain numerous historic homes and sites throughout the community)

Frank Melville Memorial Foundation (FMMF)

Preservation Long Island (PLI)

Three Village Community Trust (TVCT)

Three Village Historical Society (TVHS)

Ward Melville Heritage Organization (WMHO)

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Town Beaches

Sand Street Beach*: includes restrooms and very small pavilion.

West Meadow Beach: includes public restrooms, pavilion, and playground. 

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Neighborhood Playgrounds

(These playgrounds are part of post WWII large suburban housing developments designed to create community.  Levittown was the architype for the design philosophy.)

Co-Ed Park

Longhorn Lane Park

Oxhead Road Park

Parson Drive Park

Strathmore Park

Sycamore Circle Parksub-division 

 

Athletic Ball Fields with Playgrounds

Percy Raynor Memorial Park: includes restrooms

(Included in Neighborhood Playgrounds: Co-Ed Park, Oxhead Road Park, Strathmore Park.  These ball fields have been developed over time to provide more structured sports activities)

 

Cemeteries in the community

Cemeteries are a form of open public sacred spaces that also highlight the local history through gravestones and monuments.  Prior to public parks in the mid-19th century, they were the only public "green" spaces outside of the Civic Village Green and Commons.​  Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA, (1831) is credited as the beginning of the American public parks and gardens movement.

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Undefined Public Owned Natural Parcels

Fragmented array of parcels and large tracks of land owned by town, county, state, and public authorities.