OCTOBER 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 77
OPEN HOUSE
TAPROOM IN WEST HILLS SALE PENDING
in town records starting in 1812, aft er
the death of his father.
As with many historic houses of this
age, some of the tales that have been
woven to create a colorful history seem
to have emerged in the early 20th century.
There is a veritable cornucopia of
names claimed to have some association
with the house, including Nathan Hale,
Walt Whitman, and President Theodore
Roosevelt.
The fi rst mention of the name Peace and
Plenty Inn seems to pop up in written
accounts around 1904, although it
certainly may have been used by
locals before that. A 1914 story in The
Long-Islander about a meeting of the
Huntington Historical Society seems
to include much of the history about
the property that would be repeated
over the years, including Asa Chichester’s
time running the property as a
tavern, details on the construction of
the house, and stories of the balls and
“hog guessing,” a hog weight-guessing
sport peculiar to Long Island that took
place on the site, supposedly supposedly
attended by neighbor Walt Whitman.
Whitman’s birthplace is less than a mile
away and he may have been familiar
with the West Hills landscape of his
youth, but whether he ever accurately
guessed the weight of a hog at the Chichester
property remains a mystery.
The property marked as “Old Peace and Plenty” on a Suffolk County map from 1915-1917. Map by E. B. Hyde & Co
via New York Public Library
While the stories about the house being
a favorite stop of President Roosevelt
might seem like another tall tale to burnish
the legend of the house, multiple
newspaper accounts from 1904 to 1909
mention the Roosevelt family going for
an annual picnic at nearby Jayne’s Hill,
a scenic high spot, and then stopping at
the Chichester home nearby.
The last generation of the Chichester
family in residence, Abner and Sarah
Chichester, operated it as a boarding
house for at least some of their tenure.
A 1914 Brooklyn Daily Eagle guide for
those planning their summer getaways
included the Peace and Plenty Inn as a
property that could accommodate up to
15 guests starting at $8 per week.
Aft er the family’s sale of the property, it
seems to have remained a single-family
home. An owner in the 1950s undertook
a restoration of the taproom and restoration
of the second fl oor was necessary
aft er a 1980 fi re.
As for that ghostly presence, those tales
seemed to have begun spreading in
the late 20th century. It is supposedly
a despondent Asa Chichester, who
died in 1841 at the age of 53, whose
footsteps can be heard echoing through
the house, at least according to a 1984
New York Times profi le of the house
when it was back on the market aft er
the post-fi re restoration.
This story fi rst appeared
in Brownstoner.
continued from page 76
The Chichester family owned the property until 1916.
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
