The Long Island Museum of American Art, History, & Carriages

Many people know Stony Brook, New York, as the home of Stony Brook University, one of the most prestigious campuses in the State University of New York system. Lesser known by the general public, however, is one of the cultural gems of Suffolk County, located just a few miles from the university campus. The Long Island Museum of American Art, History, & Carriages is the collective name for three remarkable museums situated on a beautiful nine-acre site just minutes away from the Stony Brook Village Center.

Most visitors begin their tour of the grounds in the modest-sized History Museum, which is where you'll pay your admission and get information about current exhibitions. The main gallery features changing exhibitions focusing on various aspects of Long Island history and culture. The current exhibition tells the story of Levittown, America's first mass-produced suburban community. In addition to viewing photographs, video, and original objects dating back to the 1940s, visitors can enter a life-size replica of a Levittown kitchen and living room, complete with period furniture, appliances, browsable magazines from the early 1950s, and a period TV showing an episode of "I Love Lucy."

Permanantly installed to the side of the main gallery is a fascinating exhibition of 15 miniature rooms. Each of these amazing dioramas is complete with miniature furnishings and accessories reflecting interior design trends from the late 1600s to the 1930s. An adjacent gallery houses a permanent exhibition of antique, hand-crafted waterfowl decoys. The collection is said to be one of the finest of its kind.

After a visit to the gift shop, visitors cross the road to get to the park-like grounds on which the rest of the museum's buildings are situated. In addition to a gallery devoted to the paintings of the Long Island artist William Sidney Mount, the Art Museum presents changing exhibitions of 19^th and 20^th century American art. The largest building on the museum grounds is the the Dorothy and Ward Melville Carriage Museum. Its ten spacious galleries are filled with a breathtaking collection of authentic horse-drawn carriages, stagecoaches, wagons, early automobiles, and firefighting vehicles, each with its historical significance clearly explained in the accompanying label copy. The Carriage Museum will delight visitors of all ages and is easily worth the price of admission all on its own.

In addition to the three main museums, visitors to the museum grounds can view an authentic barn built in 1794, a 19^th century blacksmith shop with its original tools, a one-room schoolhouse that was used from 1877 to 1910, a beaux arts fountain and horse trough dating back to 1880, and a small cemetery with headstones dating from 1796 to 1865.

The Long Island Museum of American Art, History, & Carriages is located near the intersection of 25A and Main Street in Stony Brook. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sunday, noon - 5 p.m.