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Light Drizzle Fog House raises questions about landmark preservation
Members of several local historical organizations have expressed concern that a historic property, the Ludlam House in Mill Neck, has been purchased, potentially to be torn down and replaced. They say that the house, which was built in 1878, offers both village and town government an opportunity to strengthen landmark-protection laws.
The Herald contacted the real estate firm that managed the deal, Douglas Elliman, which did not respond to requests for comment or provide contact information for the new owners by press time.
The Ludlam House was originally owned by members of the Ludlam family, who settled on Long Island in the late 1700s. Intermarrying with local families like the Youngs and the Weekses, the Ludlams expanded and renovated the property throughout the 1800s, and the house was largely completed in 1878, at a time when the Victorian style of home architecture, which has a wide range of architectural influences, was popular.
The house and property were featured in a well-known painting of the area, made in the 1860s by a local artist known only as Marky. The painting is owned by Raynham Hall Museum, in Oyster Bay, and is one of two that show what Harriet Clark, the museum’s director, described as “a weird, sort of convoluted perspective of Oyster Bay in the 1860s.”
Clark said that she had heard about the historic home’s sale from friends, and was concerned that it might be torn down. Clark had visited it, and said that due to the high cost of maintaining old houses like it, it might end up being resold or demolished.
Clark said that the Ludlam House’s situation highlights a need for local government to step in and help support historic properties in the area. The Town of Oyster Bay, she said, has protections for numerous properties in the township, and she said that if the town created tax incentives for the owners of such homes, more 19th-century buildings could be protected.
“We need to come up with some sort of tax incentives or some framework that will allow buildings like that to be preserved,” Clark said. Otherwise, “You risk completely erasing the history that’s hanging on by its fingernails all around us.”
It is unclear who bought the Ludlam House, or what their plans might be. The property was owned by Nancy T. Rezza since at least 1996, and records in the Nassau County clerk’s office show a new deed dated Sept. 29, 2022, but do not list the buyer.
Local architect John Collins, a member of the Town of Oyster Bay Landmarks Preservation Commission, also fears that the house may be torn down. While he and Clark acknowledge that the property is the owner’s to do with as they like, they emphasized that with stronger protections and more tax incentives for the restoration of historic houses, more structures that are a key part of North Shore history could be saved in the future.
“The problem is, towns and villages back in the bicentennial days” — the 1970s — “were all into preservation, and they enacted preservation and landmark ordinances, and then they designate significant buildings,” Collins said. “Mill Neck, unfortunately, does not. The other problem with preservation is you have to have a consensus of the people that live in the municipality that agree they want to do that, which is a whole lengthy legal process.”
While Clark said she applauded the Village of Mill Neck and the town for helping to restore the nearby Mill Neck Manor, she added that there are still many historic houses that have no similar protections.
The Town of Oyster Bay’s Landmarks Code currently has 41 properties designated as historic, and states that “any landmark property that seeks aesthetic alterations, visible from the street, is required to obtain approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission,” according to a statement by Brian Nevin, the town’s public information officer. While there are some existing tax breaks for historic properties, the money that supports them comes from state grants, not from the town.
