Historic Griffing House In Flanders Gets Unwelcome Paint Job

Most folks drive quickly through Flanders on the way to Riverhead. As they pass the Big Duck, many feel nostalgia; others, curiosity. Lots of out-of-towners stop—it’s a welcoming place, filled with interesting duck memorabilia and local history. One is sure to find someone behind the counter who will help with local lore or just directions.

“I remember when someone stopped and asked how do you get to Southampton,” Janice Jay Young, a member of the town’s Landmarks and Historic Districts Board and the Flanders Historical Society, recalls with a laugh. “I said, ‘You’re in Southampton!’”

Flanders was originally part of the Town of Southold, though Southampton Town purchased it from the Shinnecocks in 1659 and took possession of it in 1667 after a legal battle with Southold.

You can’t miss the Big Duck on Flanders Road, between Chauncey Road and the eastern shore of Goose Creek, the area that makes up, according to the Flanders Village Historical Society, “Olde Flanders Village.”

Many other historical resources—like the Griffing House, at 1040 Flanders Road—are harder to find.

For about a century, Flanders was a sleepy little hamlet with an early industry in salt hay, a natural resource used for feed, bedding and insulation. Another industry was cordwood.

It was cordwood that a young Samuel Griffing carried between his home in Flanders and Connecticut. Around 1890, he settled down on the farm of his father, John Griffing, to raise—what else?—ducks.

Indeed, the Griffings were the first to farm ducks in Flanders and, according to the Flanders Hamlet Heritage Area Report, by the turn of the 20th century they were raising more than 5,000 ducklings a year.

He wasn’t the farmer who built the Big Duck. That was later, the brainchild of another duck farmer, Martin Mauer, who wanted an advertisement for his farm. Mr. Mauer’s farm, at 1012 Flanders Road, was a neighbor of the Griffing farm, which is situated on a peninsula known as Methodist Point.

This house, currently owned by Marie Guerrera, is being painted red and white—like the stripes on the American flag—and will, according to the owner, eventually have “removable stars.” The reason for this, said Ms. Guerrera, is so she can move the stars to the bottom of the flag so the flag will appear upside down. This she will do when she feels she has been wronged by the Suffolk County courts and justice system.

No one knows more about Flanders than Gary Cobb, the author of the Flanders Hamlet Heritage Area Report and the founder of the Flanders Village Historical Society, which he formed in 2009. While he has since moved back to East Hampton, where he grew up, he is nonetheless “obsessed” with the history and preservation of Flanders, where he raised his family.

“I met with Marie and had two lengthy and positive conversations with her,” he said. This was almost 10 years ago.

Mr. Cobb attempted to get the Southampton Town Community Preservation Fund involved in an effort to buy the historic house and land, but no agreement was reached.

Today, the property, which includes the main house and several smaller buildings, stands in very poor condition. Ms. Guerrera was reached by a reporter only once in person, on the property, where she gave the reasons for painting the flag as a kind of protest against the “system.”

An online search calls up several legal disputes that Ms. Guerrera has been involved with, including a foreclosure proceeding and one in which the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals charged her with neglecting horses at a farm in Calverton—charges that were later dropped.

She didn’t return any further calls concerning her Flanders Road property.

“She had some good ideas,” Mr. Cobb said. “She winded up with this property and had grandiose designs of making something special out of it, and it just didn’t happen. I was sorry I couldn’t help her.”

When Mr. Cobb met with Ms. Guerrera, he went inside the house in an effort to assess the building. He describes the condition inside as “heartbreaking.”

“It had been vandalized terribly,” he remembers. “This grand home, you could tell, was just awesome—the staircase, the panels, the crown mouldings. But now, panels were kicked in, old mirrors over fireplaces broken, doors kicked out. And even with all the damage, it was still special. What a place this must have been!”

He added, “I understand her frustration. But painting the flag? If she cares enough about the house as she said she did, she should respect the building itself.”

The flag on the side of the house—and its potential to be turned upside down—is not something Mr. Cobb has sympathy for. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force and the New York Air National Guard, he said, “I don’t agree with using the American flag in that manner. It’s disrespectful to the flag. I’m pretty old school. It’s just not right.”

According to the website U.S. Flag Code, hanging an American flag upside down should be done only in times of distress. So far, only the bottom half of the house at 1040 Flanders Road has been painted with red and white stripes.

Mr. Cobb did say that the paint on the exterior is the least of the house’s problems.

“There is such a thing as demolition by neglect,” he said. “This is what’s happening here. Regardless of your personal agenda, you show respect for historical significance—and this house is one of the premier historical resources for Flanders.”

Ms. Young said she remains optimistic, citing the Town of Southampton landmark status of The Big Duck and Big Duck Ranch, as well as The Blue Barn and The Thomas Dunbar House. The Big Duck and Big Duck Farm, as well as the Benjamin Homestead, have been declared State and National Historic Places.

Ms. Young said she’d love to see the Griffing House restored. “It’s a historic resource of Flanders, and I think it’s a shame that it’s been defaced. It really has an important part of Flanders history.”

Mr. Cobb can list many potential future incarnations for the Griffing House, on its 4.5 acres, including a shellfish hatchery, a marine museum or a Peconic Estuary visitors center.

It is also more than a historical resource. It’s a sacred place.

A postcard of a building that was at one time the Flanders Post Office, adjacent to 1040 Flanders Road, shows that the building had a sign on the roof that read: “500 feet to the Rest-Awhile.” Mr. Cobb believes this was most likely a reference to Methodist Point. Samuel Griffin was a trustee in the Methodist Church and most likely welcomed parishioners to his property. Some of them perhaps sailed over from Southold.

According to the Flanders Hamlet Heritage Area Report: Methodist preachings to this day refer to Mark 6:31, which reads: “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while ...” What better place than Flanders?

If divine intervention cannot save the Griffing House, perhaps at least the stars will stay in their rightful place, in the upper lefthand corner of the flag.