Metal Detectorist Begins Search for Buried Treasure at Remsenburg Academy

The metal detector sounded an alarm like a cash register scanner, and Southampton Town Historian Julie Greene placed a little red flag to mark the spot. When Larry Andria’s detector sounded, he started digging, then thrust a “pinpointer” into the hole to get the exact location of the metal object.

“Ah! It’s an ancient pull tab,” he joked, brushing dirt off his find.

He finds a lot of pop tops and bottle caps while searching for buried treasure at beaches and parks in Southampton.

Last Friday morning, Andria, Greene and Stephanie Davis of the town’s Landmarks and Historic Districts Board took the quest and the metal detecting gear to the 1863 Remsenburg Academy, conducting the very first metal detecting project on a town landmark.

The search is a slow, methodical effort. A grid was laid out across the approximately 1-acre property on South Country Road. Each item found would be documented and dated.

By the end of the first detecting day, Greene reported finding interesting coins. Among them, a 1944 silver nickel she lauded as “very cool, since the U.S. pulled the nickel content out of the 5-cent coin to use the metal for war artillery.” Several “wheat pennies,” which have Abraham Lincoln on one side and two stalks of wheat on the other, were unearthed. Issued between 1909 and 1958, “some are very rare,” the historian said.

A 1924 silver-plated spoon, a few hand-forged iron nails, and a brass door plate with a movable key latch were added to the collection on Friday, and on Tuesday night, Andria’s haul included more coins and a horseshoe.

The first intriguing item disinterred Friday morning was a Wolf Cub Scout neckerchief slide. Called woggles, neckerchief slides originated with the Scouts in the 1920s. Red coloring still evident once the dirt was wiped away suggests it may be old, but not that old.

Asked what inspired him to start metal-detecting, Andria quipped, “Retirement.”

He’s been a detectorist about 12 years, and said, “It’s like Christmas every day. I’ll come home so excited: ‘I found 2 dollars and 37 cents!’ And my wife will say, ‘And?’”

Kneeling on the grass at the academy, he observed, “Anything going back to the 1800s could be here.”

When the alarm sounds, he digs out a chunk of grass and dirt, then inserts the pinpointer into the hole. From there it’s hands-on, as he pulls a palm-sized chunk of dirt and shakes the earth off. Potential treasure goes into a bag that hangs from his belt alongside a trowel and the pinpointer. The piece of lawn is replaced seamlessly, showing no sign of the dig. “You’re not supposed to know I’m here,” he said.

While Andria’s been working at town beaches and parks for quite some time, “This is the first time it’s been done on a landmarked, historic property, particularly one that’s town owned,” Davis explained. It’s the “flagship” detecting project on town historic property, Greene added.

A Remsenburg resident, Andria approached Davis with the idea of a subterranean search at the academy. “It sounded like a great thing,” she said. The project presented some concerns because the property is owned by the town, it’s landmarked and the nonprofit Remsenburg Academy Association is the steward. Once an agreement was inked, the volunteer could get to work.

Clearly enthusiastic about a slow-going task that requires a lot of patience, Andria said that over the dozen years he’s been detecting, “I find diamond rings and silver and gold rings — a lot of jewelry.” He tries to track down owners, and will post alerts at the concession stands of beaches he explores. He digs up a lot of dog collars, bottle caps and lots of coins — a Mercury dime dating to the 1930s was a special find.

The response to his efforts clearly tickles him. At local beaches and parks, “an entourage of kids” often follows him, curious. He recalled one outing in particular: “By the end of the day, the kids were taking their shovels and putting sea shells to their ears and going ‘beep, beep, beep.’”

After telling the story, Andria plunges the trowel into the grass and excavates … something. “It’s old, very rusty and has two bolts on it. It could be part of a wagon assembly,” he muses. Davis notices the bolts are threaded — it might not be that old. Andria is not discouraged in the least and turns his attention back to the landmark’s lawn.

The academy for boys was built in 1863 by John W. Tuttle. A one-room schoolhouse, the timber framed Italianate village style building is the only known local example of a private school building and a highly recognizable historical resource in the hamlet.

Students boarded with local farming families and a preserved newspaper ad heralded the exclusive school as limited to 10 students, with a tuition of $200 dollars per year.

When Tuttle married one of the teachers, “she had to leave,” Greene explained. In those days, school marms had to be single, Davis said.

Soon, however, the railroad came “and that changed everything here,” Davis continued. The school closed in 1869.

Tuttle built the nearby Ocean House for summer boarders, who paid $8 to $10 per week and gave up the academy in what was Speonk at the time. The name Remsenburg came to the fore some 30 years later when a wealthy resident offered to build a church if they’d name the community after him.

The academy was a rental residence, still owned by the Tuttle descendants, until 1958, when it became the hamlet’s post office. A lifelong Remsenburg resident, Davis recalls when the post office had boxes with combination locks. She remembered having to go up to the counter when, as a child, she’d forget the combination. The same boxes were installed when the post office moved across South Country Road in 1967. They were updated for key entries.

The academy returned to a life as a private residence. Its last owners bequeathed the building to the community, and it became a town-owned resource during the late 1990s, landmarked in 2016.

The Remsenburg Academy Association, the stewards of the property, was formed to maintain and operate the property. Available for public use, it hosts community gatherings and a rotating series of art exhibits during the summer. Shows feature works by artists with ties to the East End.

On Friday, the school room featured child-sized chairs placed across the polished wood floors. The “Chair of Hope,” art installation was conceived in memory of, and in solidarity with, all victims of gun violence, and the many others affected by it. Painted by local artists the tiny chairs honor the lives lost in Uvalde,Texas, shooting last year. The show opened on Saturday evening.