First National Bank of Port Jefferson is a historic bank building located at Port Jefferson in Suffolk County, New York. It is a 2+1⁄2-story brick building with a 2-story turret that projects from the second story of the southwest corner and rises above the roof line. The turret has a steeply pitched, cone shaped slate roof and three windows on both levels. The main entrance to the building used to be directly below the turret, but was made into a window around 1949 when a 1-story brick, flat-roofed addition was built on the east side of the bank building. In 1948, the building ceased being used for a bank and was purchased by the Town of Brookhaven, who completed the 1-story addition the following year.[2]
First National Bank of Port Jefferson | |
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| Location | Main and East Main Sts., Port Jefferson, New York |
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| Coordinates | 40°56′43″N 73°4′6″W / 40.94528°N 73.06833°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1900, 1949 |
| Architect | Loper Bros. |
| Architectural style | Late Victorian |
| NRHP reference No. | 05001134[1] |
| Added to NRHP | October 5, 2005 |
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.[1]
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In 2010, the building was owned by the Town of Brookhaven and used as their tax collector's office.
In 2011, the Long Island Music Hall of Fame was slated to open inside the building, at the time only existing as a website. Brookhaven town officials announced an agreement for a 15-year lease at the site. The hall of fame never came to fruition.[3]
In 2013, a collectible ten-dollar bill issued by the First National Bank of Port Jefferson was put up for auction on EBay for about $5,000.[4]
The building was unoccupied for many years, until in 2016, the buildings interior was remodeled to include first floor retail space and two luxury residential apartments on the second floor. The retail space currently hosts the store Kate & Hale, which opened in 2017.[5]
2021 Safe Incident
editIn 2021, a teenage girl was rescued by firefighters after accidentally being locked in the Kate & Hale dressing room area that once served as the building's bank vault.[6][7] 14 year-old Giavanna Diesso[8] became trapped in the vault after the girl's younger brother closed the door behind her as a joke.[9] Rescue crews from the Port Jefferson Fire Department used air chisels and hammer drills to breach the 12-inch thick wall.[10] Diesso used her cell phone to record her surroundings to help see how much room they had to break through the vault. She was eventually rescued, being pulled out horizontally. The rescue took about 90 minutes.[8]
References
edit- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ Virginia L. Bartos (June 2005). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: First National Bank of Port Jefferson". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2010-02-20. See also: "Accompanying five photos".
- ^ kenmac722 (2011-08-06). "NY's Long Island Music Hall of Fame finds a home". Port Jefferson Village. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Bank Notes Offer Lesson in Village History". Port Jefferson, NY Patch. 2013-03-16. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
- ^ lifunpass (2017-04-10). "KATE & HALE opens in Port Jefferson". Local FunPass Newsroom. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
- ^ "Girl rescued from locked dressing room that was a Long Island bank vault". NEWS10 ABC. 2021-06-24. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
- ^ "Teen Gets Trapped In Bank Vault Turned Dressing Room At Long Island Clothing Store". 2021-06-23. Retrieved 2022-01-05.
- ^ a b Mosher, Julianne. "How the PJFD saved a teen stuck in an old bank vault | TBR News Media". Retrieved 2022-01-02.
- ^ "LI Girl Rescued From Old Bank Vault Converted Into Dressing Room". Port Jefferson, NY Patch. 2021-06-23. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
- ^ "L.I. girl rescued after locked in dressing room used to be bank vault: officials". PIX11. 2021-06-24. Retrieved 2022-01-02.