Current Exhibitions
Webb House Period Rooms
The Orange Webb House is the oldest structure on the OHS campus. It was built in the 18th century (most likely around 1790) and originally stood near Sterling Creek in Greenport. The early history of the building has been difficult to decipher, and there is a possibility that it was built earlier in the 18th century and extensively remodeled in the late 18th century. Perhaps one day, documents will turn up that will establish a definitive date. Legend has it that George Washington once stopped at Webb House for a cup of tea while waiting for a boat to arrive to ferry him across the Sound to Connecticut. But…we cannot tell a lie; try as we might, we have been unable to find any substantive, irrefutable proof that the episode ever happened.
Webb House is thought to have been built as an inn or tavern and functioned as such until it was moved in the first part of the 19th century. The building preserves significant details which confirm its early use as a tavern. Among these details are, for example, the three ovens in three separate rooms.
Webb House shown at its second location, off the Main Road in Greenport.
It was first moved sometime in the first part of the 19th century, but the date of the move has not been firmly established. It was pulled by teams of oxen across the fields to the north side of the Main Road – just where the Kontokosta vineyard begins. The move may have taken place as late as 1840. On its new site it no longer functioned as a tavern, but became a farm house.
It remained on that site for well over one hundred years – until 1955 when George R. Latham bought it from the Sinuta family (who had acquired it in 1941) and subsequently moved the house via barge to its current site in Orient. He bequeathed the Webb House and most of the objects on view to the Oysterponds Historical Society in 1981
A major renovation was undertaken in 1991, which helped to preserve the original molding. The rooms in Webb House today reflect its history in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and house many of OHS’s most important pieces from that period. The upstairs now features a permanent maritime exhibition.
Exhibit Items
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