History Of St James, NY

The hamlet of St. James, NY, which is located in the Town of Smithtown in Suffolk County, has several neighbors including Village of the Branch, Head of the Harbor, and Nissequogue. The villages share a lot of characteristics owing to their shared history.

St. James got its name from the Episcopal Church of St. James that started in the area in the mid-1800s. A U.S. postal service office later joined the church after a while. St. James was mainly farmland before the arrival of the Long Island Rail Road, so growth in the early days was mostly non-existent.

The arrival of the railroad changed all that. In 1873, Saint James joined other hamlets in Long Island and wealthy New Yorkers sort to acquire land in the newly founded community. Most of them sought to transform the farmland into mansions as St. James earned a reputation as a desirable vacation spot for celebrity actors. The likes of John Barrymore, Buster Keaton, Irving Berlin, and Myrna Loy vacationed here in the early 20th century. The hamlet has also been the home to the likes of Stanford White, William Jay Gaynor, and Mick Foley.

One of the oldest continuously operating general stores in the U.S. is in St. James. The St. James General Store opened its doors in 1857 and continues to serve residents up to today. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and it’s located in the historic Saint James District.

After the Land family came into the area in 1900, they established a carpentry business, which later transformed into a construction business. Most of the historic buildings in St. James were worked on by Law Land and his sons. Other notable families to settle in the area include the Goehles who emigrated from New York City after World War 2 to settle permanently in Saint James. Winifred Goehle Manion and her husband were listed in the 1930 census of Saint James. They lived at the corner of 2nd Street and 6th Avenue.

Frank Goehle and his wife, Isabelle Walsh, first acquired a summer cabin in St. James before moving to the area permanently in 1943. They would later be joined by Bud Land and Agnes Goehle, completing the relocation of the Goehle family. They were joined by the Percy family that bought the triangular piece of land between Lake Avenue, the railroad track, and Moriches Road in St. James in 1924.