Whole text was written by Denise Civiletti
A push to seek National Register recognition for Riverhead’s Polish Town is moving forward, with town officials asking residents to help document the neighborhood’s buildings and collect the stories and records that could support the designation.
The idea was discussed Jan. 15 during a Riverhead Town Board work session, when Landmarks Preservation Committee chair Richard Wines outlined plans to form a small subcommittee to begin the survey work needed for a National Register of Historic Places historic district nomination.
Wines said the proposed district could encompass a large area — potentially hundreds of properties — and the first step is a comprehensive survey that includes photographing buildings, doing archival research and interviewing people familiar with the neighborhood’s history.
“We’re going to need to photograph all of the buildings, all of the resources,” Wines told the board, describing the effort as a community-driven project that will rely on volunteers to gather information and help identify people who have documents, photos or firsthand knowledge to share.
Councilwoman Joann Waski, who invited Wines to present at the work session, said the undertaking is substantial and will require broad participation to keep Polish Town’s legacy from being lost.
A National Register district is different from a locally regulated historic district, Wines said. Listing on the National Register does not, by itself, impose restrictions on private property owners. Instead, he said, the practical “strings” are tied to tax credits: owners who seek preservation-related credits must meet rehabilitation standards to qualify, but owners who do not pursue credits are not automatically bound by new rules.
Wines told the board that one goal of the designation is to make state and federal incentives available for rehabilitation work. In the work session discussion, he described a 20% state historic tax credit for certain owner-occupied work and the possibility of combining state and federal credits for income-producing properties that undertake substantial rehabilitation projects.
Riverhead Polish Hall on Marcy Avenue in Riverhead. St. Isidore’s Church is in the background. RiverheadLOCAL/ Denise Civiletti
The effort, Wines said, is also about recognition — formal acknowledgment of a neighborhood shaped by Polish immigrants and Polish Americans, and of an immigrant story that played out in Riverhead’s streets, churches, businesses and social organizations.
The 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update recommended seeking the National Registry listing. Wines and Waski discussed the idea with the Town Board at its Feb. 27, 2025 work session.
“Polish immigrants started arriving in Riverhead in the 1880s and 1890s,” Wines said, and they almost all came as farm workers.
The only Catholic church in Riverhead was St. John’s, which was predominantly Irish. The Polish farmers got together and organized a society, which they named after the patron saint of farmers, Saint Isidore.