There will be a lot more questions than answers on this page for not a whole lot can be documented at this time regarding the early days of this home. What I do know is that the Knapps acquire the property in 1916, and judging from the rest of the existing homes the Smiths and Lawrences had constructed on the 160 acres, reasonably assume the Knapps built it. * This home was radically different and much newer. Though at the time when my friends and I first explored it, (1955) we thought it had to be hundreds of years old. Six indoor bathrooms alone should of been the tipoff, as should the wall of refrigerator compartments in the huge kitchen complete with huge commercial style gas ranges and ovens that would of been the pride of any catering service. In the basement there was a large coal furnace along with multiple fireplaces to heat it. So it's a fairly safe bet to assume that one or more of the Knapps had this home built, plus it was always referred to as The Knapp Mansion, not the Lawrence or Smith mansion. So....Was it Claire? Joseph F. their father Joseph Palmer? or all of them? With three stories and 21 rooms, they all would of been comfortable staying there especially Joseph Palmer who had several other fine homes to live in.

*Newer discoveries made since 2004 have now convinced me that the building was put up about 1907 perhaps as a wedding gift by Frank M.Lawrence to his bride Louise. But that the Knapps made many many improvements to it. The fact that the general public did not start settling in the area until 1926 (10 years after the Lawrences had sold it ), could well be the reason it became known as the Knapp Mansion

Kenny Vitellaro, who is a contractor thinks it was built in the late teens early 1920's and I agree. It will be interesting to find out who designed it and who actually constructed it. 15 years ago I attempted to find a photo of it to show my son Erik who then was around 4 years old. He was already showing a keen interest in old houses and we visited many of them here in Tennessee, including President Andrew Jackson's Hermitage. I recall when I helped chaperone a field trip for his 4th grade class there, Erik gave his own tour to his classmates and what he remembered about the place was amazing including all the anecdotes the tour guide had told us years before that. He seemed fascinated about the stories I would tell him about the Knapp place and asked me to draw a picture of it for him... he soon started drawing his own pictures.

When I first tried finding a photo of the Knapp place to show Erik, around 1987, I called the Moriches Bay Historical Society and St.Judes Church (the last owners of the house) and totally struck out. I remember CLEARLY however that one newspaper in 1959, published at least one photo possibly two of it the way it was, along with the photos of it on fire. Checking out the Moriches Tribune a local weekly the only photos they had were of it blazing, the aftermath, (three lonely chimneys standing in the rubble) and of one of the fireman who went to the hospital. It's sister publication, The Patchogue Advance only ran the story. John Cummings a Tribune reporter who ran a weekly paper called The Moriches Bay Tide was still two years away from publishing it, but may of had another short lived paper before that. Of the daily Long Island papers of that time Newsday and Long Island Press, I believe only Newsday is on microfilm and last time I checked, it only was copied back to 1965. Yet I'm POSITIVE there was a photo of this home in it's glory days. I seem to recall it was taken from the south EAST front corner with the emphasis on that tall south east tower.

This one tiny photo I finally obtained in April of this year was in a Xeroxed brochure that was published by St. Jude's for their 25th anniversary in 1974, and it shows the house photographed from the south WEST corner. It would be very nice to have a decent copy of this original photo. So I know there are at least 2 photos someplace of the exterior. I also have heard about a photo taken in the ballroom during a St. Jude's Rosary Society Breakfast around 1950, but have yet to see it. It was displayed at St. Jude's 50th anniversary, but again even after visiting the church office, having them confirm it's existence and making several follow up calls, they can't seem to "locate it" for me. I know there are other photos out there....The Long Island newspaper that ran the photo that I clearly recall, would of been published between Monday Feb 16th, (the day after the fire) through Friday Feb. 20th 1959.