Taylor's Island: An island within an island

This is the second part of a two-part feature chronicling the history of Taylor’s Island. Tickets, at $100, are now available for the Taylor’s Island annual Kettlebake, scheduled for August 13, from 2 to 5 p.m. and include transportation to and from the island. Call 749-1603 to make reservations or obtain further information.

On April 21, 1937, the ownership of Cedar Island and the small mainland acreage connected to the Island by a tombolo — a spit of sand connecting an island to the mainland, visible only at low tide — passed from Evelyn Smith, Francis Marion Smith’s widow, to S. Gregory Taylor, 1888-1948, and a new chapter in the island’s history began.

Taylor was born on the Greek island of Prikonnesos, Marmar during the Turkish occupation. He grew up there, coming to America by way of steerage at the age of 20. He learned the hotel business, working in positions ranging from bellhop to manager, with the Manger chain of hotels, one of the largest in the country.

Moving out on his own in 1925, he leased the Buckingham, a 15-story residential hotel at 57th Street and Sixth Avenue in New York. By 1928, he had added another hotel, the Montclair, on Lexington Avenue between 49th and 50th. In 1930, the Hotel Dixie, occupying the entire block from 42nd to 43rd Streets, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, came under his control. On October 16 of that year, he added the St. Moritz on Central Park South near Sixth Avenue — 38 stories with 1,000 rooms — to his holdings. He founded Aid to Greece during World War II, providing both munitions and medical supplies, and gave Greek refugees shelter in his hotels.

No one knows exactly how Taylor found his way to Shelter Island, although local lore has it that he knew another Greek family, the Foltises, who had a home on Little Ram Island. They were also Manhattan hotel owners and ran a seafood restaurant. Taylor, with his wife, Ione Zographidis, and their extended family — the couple had no children — enjoyed their tiny idyll for the next decade. Taylor always gave a party on August 15, the day Christian churches celebrate the Virgin Mary’s ascension, and everyone, including on- and off-Islanders, was invited.

In 1944, Taylor signed his last will and testament, which stipulated that his nephew Stephen Stephano and Stephen’s eldest son would have the use of the island for the remainder of their lives. Then it was to be given to the town of Shelter Island. Taylor set up a trust of $20,000 for its maintenance, directing that he be buried on the island’s eastern slope.

He died of a heart attack while visiting Florida at the age of 59 in 1948. The South Ferry company brought his coffin to Shelter Island from North Haven on a miserable February day. On the day of his funeral, Hap Bowditch Sr. had to use a bulldozer to scrape the snow away and dynamite to dig the hole for his grave. The words, “To live in the hearts of those we love is not to die,” are engraved on his tombstone. He’s remembered today by old-time Islanders, who either worked for him, knew him socially or, in many instances, both. His celebrations live on in memory and are memorialized now every August, this year on the 13th, by the Taylor’s Island Foundation with its Kettlebake.

Enter Andrew Arkin (1924-2009), who discovered Taylor’s Island while flying over Coecles Harbor in a seaplane. Through Greg Price, a local real estate agent, Andrew contacted Mr. Stephano and arranged to lease the island in exchange for the maintenance and restoration of the cabin; he also agreed to give Mr. Taylor’s sister access so she could visit her brother’s grave. He cared for Taylor’s Island for 22 years until 1980 and returned there in 2006 for an open house, and again in 2008, arriving by seaplane, for a celebration in his honor. He died the following year.

Andrew Arkin had joined his father, Leonard Arkin, in the fashion business in 1960. A designer and a director of the Fashion Originator’s Guild, Leonard Arkin had founded his company in 1927, specializing in suits, coats and dresses. The company specialized in interpretations of Paris originals for the “moderate to bridge market.” The company disappeared from media mention in 1969 but it is unclear when it went out of business.

Islander Edie Lechmanski’s husband, a school teacher, worked for Mr. Arkin as a caretaker during several summers. She remembers going as a family and spending time there while her husband worked. Mr. Arkin invited her to come to his factory once a year and pick out “anything she liked.” Laughing, she remembered her husband’s comment, “How come I do all the work and you get the reward?”

With the death of Taylor’s nephew in 1997, the island reverted to the Town of Shelter Island in 1998, in accord with Gregory Taylor’s will. Over the next several years, Islanders argued about what to do with it. The Shelter Island Reporter editorialized in 1998, “Taylor’s Island is a tidally-isolated spot … with a deteriorated infrastructure that will always be susceptible to vandalism, wind and wave. There is no parking. Utilities are precarious. While the original restoration will be costly, even if the state picks up half the tab, the ongoing maintenance in manpower and dollars will be draped around our necks forever, staggering us like the Ancient Mariner’s albatross.”

As is often the way on this small Island, other voices began to be heard and grew louder. In 2000, the Town Board entered into an agreement with the Nature Conservancy, which owns the adjacent Mashomack Preserve, letting the Conservancy control the island. The agreement included plans to raze the cabin. Further outcry followed, sufficient for that aspect of the plan to be withdrawn. A second attempt to raze the cabin came up among Town Board members in December 2005. Again voices were raised. Councilwoman Christine Lewis then suggested creating a Preservation and Management Committee for the island. The Town Board agreed, creating the Taylor’s Island Preservation and Management Committee in 2005 with Councilman Ed Brown as the board’s liaison to the panel, of which P.A.T. Hunt and Richie Surozenski were co-chairs.

In March 2006, the committee began the process of creating the Taylor’s Island Foundation to raise funds for the restoration and preservation of the cabin. In 2007, the town, through the committee’s efforts, received a Preserve New York grant to compile an Historic Structure Report on the Smith-Taylor Cabin. It has become the road map for the cabin restoration project. In addition, the cabin was listed on the National and New York State Registers of Historic Places.

In 2011, with the committee and foundation working without letup, a matching grant of $110,600 to restore the cabin was secured on the third try from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The match will come from donations, funds left by Mr. Taylor for the care of the property (now amounting to more than $80,000), volunteer labor, donated materials and in-kind services from the Town Highway Department.

Work continues there, almost on a daily basis, to establish Taylor’s Island as a self-supporting town park and recreational facility. The porch deck and porch roof on the Smith-Taylor Cabin have been repaired; half of the island’s perimeter has been re-bulkheaded; landing areas have been upgraded; and the removal of the invasive Japanese knotweed has begun. In addition, a motorboat has been given to the foundation, named of course, Taylor’s Whaler. In summary, all aspects of the Island’s care and maintenance are under constant, ongoing stewardship.

Curious? Come see for yourself on August 13, when once again S. Gregory Taylor will be remembered with yet another celebration. Wander or wade this tiny piece of island history, enjoy the hoped-for bright sunshine and the cooling breezes of Coecles Harbor. And experience the island within an island within an island.

The author, a regular features contributor to the Reporter, is a member of the Taylor’s Island Committee.