" No Not Newport.........BELLPORT"
Here is some of what Molly McCarthy a staff writer for Newsday said about the town.....
E.B. White spent a summer there and later wrote a poem about it. Artist William Glackens immortalized its beaches in his impressionistic paintings. And Elmer Sperry, inventor of the gyroscope, loved it so much he retired there.
No, not Newport. Bellport.
This still-unassuming fishing village 50 miles east of New York City was, for a time, among the most popular summer spots on Long Island, attracting great statesmen, financiers, actors, writers, journalists and artists. By the 1880s, they streamed into the welcoming village, bringing their families, their bathing suits and their yachts. They rented cottages or built their own or stayed in one of the many hotels and rooming houses that were springing up: The Wyandotte, The Homestead, The Bay House, The Goldthwaite. Most were on or near the waters of Great South Bay.
For the rest of Molly's article and much more about LI Towns click here
I first discovered that the Knapps lived here too, (Bellport) when I saw their address on a ship manifest in 1911. Actually it was a trip taken by Sylvia and her daughter Claire. All of the Knapp's took many trips on ships and that will be the subject of an entire other page in the near future. If you recall J. F Knapp died on his way home from France aboard the steamship La Champagne in 1891.
A 1907 ship manifest of the S.S. Kaiser Willhelm II shows Sylvia and Claire Knapp returning from Bremen, Germany on August 20th. Sylvia and J. P. divorced around 1904, but it would make sense that they were introduced to the village of Bellport earlier because it lies just west of Squassox Landing. Dodi who would of been 18 by the time the 1910 census was taken is not shown living there. The fact that he wasn't on the steamship 3 years prior leads me to believe he may of been away at school or living with his father. I know he was living with J.P at least part time in 1920 according to that census. It shows him at J. P's NY address and in Mackey Island too, not to mention at the Mastic Beach mansion with his sister. That boy got around!
In the 13th Census of The United States, taken in the year 1910 it shows Sylvia who was 42 and Claire who was 20, living on South Country Road in Bellport Villiage, along with a chauffer, John Lehan,(?) cook, Anna Doherty and maid Clara Young (?). The last names of the servants are questionable due to the enumerators handwriting.
In 1899 J. P.'s name turns up in Bellport, due to his other passion GOLF. Here is an excerpt from a booklet on the village I discovered in the Local history room of the Patchogue Medford Library with the help of librarian Mark Rothberg.
