750 Reeve Avenue — A c.1760 Farmhouse on the North Fork

Imagine It Yours

The same rooms, reimagined.

Drag each handle to slide between the home as it stands today and the home as it could feel — a glimpse of how the original wide-plank floors, brick chimneys, and beam ceilings live alongside a calm, modern hand. Move slowly. Look at the floors.

The Primary Bedroom

Wide-plank pumpkin pine, c.1760

As It Is

Reimagined

The Beamed Living Room

Hand-hewn timber ceiling · Original brick hearth

As It Is

Reimagined

The Formal Parlor

Original mantel · Wide-plank floors

As It Is

Reimagined

The Brick-Chimney Bedroom

Original brick masonry passing through the room

Brick chimney bedroom — as it stands today

As It Is

Reimagined

The Sun-Lit Parlor

Deep-set 12/12 windows · Period wallpaper

As It Is

Reimagined

The Double Sitting Room

Two original fireplaces · Wide-plank pine

As It Is

Reimagined

The Guest Bedroom

Hand-built mantel · Wide-plank floors

As It Is

Reimagined

The Floral Bedroom

Period floral wallpaper · Exposed brick chimney

As It Is

Reimagined

The Upper Bedroom

Original ladder to loft · Exposed beams

As It Is

Reimagined

The Loft Bedroom

Hand-hewn rafters · Wide-plank floors

As It Is

Reimagined

A Garden Reimagined

The half-acre, with a pool quietly added.

An illustration of how a discreetly placed pool would sit within the existing mature plantings — without disturbing the historic carriage house or the front facade.

The half-acre garden, reimagined with a pool — Conceptual rendering · Pool placement on existing rear lawn

A Closer Look

The house, as it lives today.

Forty photographs of a working farmhouse — its kitchen, its hearths, its halls, its gardens. Click any image to view it full-screen.

The front facade in autumn — The Front Facade · Autumn

The beamed living room with fire — The Beamed Living Room · Hand-Hewn Ceiling

Kitchen with hand-hewn beams and brick floor — The Kitchen · Beams & Brick Floor

Driveway approach with red carriage house — The Drive · Two-Story Carriage House

Formal living room with original mantel — The Formal Parlor · Original Mantel

Kitchen with gas cooktop and exposed beams — The Kitchen · Gas Cooktop & Beams

Kitchen with brick beehive oven — The Kitchen · Brick Beehive Oven

Center stair hall with original wide-plank floors — The Center Stair Hall

Formal dining room with period wallpaper — The Formal Dining Room

Primary bedroom with original mantel and pumpkin pine — The Primary Bedroom · Pumpkin Pine Floors

Front facade at sunset — The Facade · Late Light

Bedroom with original brick chimney passing through — Bedroom · Original Brick Chimney

Yellow parlor with period wallpaper and fireplace — The Yellow Parlor · Period Wallpaper

Brick patio with mature banana tree — The Brick Patio · Mature Banana Tree

Bedroom showing original wide-plank pumpkin pine — Bedroom · Wide-Plank Pumpkin Pine

Butler's pantry between kitchen and dining room — The Butler's Pantry

Upper bedroom under the eaves with hand-hewn rafters — Upper Bedroom · Under the Eaves

Upstairs hall with painting and original floors — The Upstairs Hall

Bedroom with exposed beam ceiling — Bedroom · Exposed Beam Ceiling

Red carriage house with original double doors — The Carriage House · Studio & Garage

Bedroom with white-mantel fireplace — Bedroom · Fireplace & Original Mantel

Kitchen detail showing copper backsplash — The Kitchen · Copper Backsplash

Rear elevation showing the kitchen ell — The Rear Elevation

Banana tree on the brick patio — The Garden · Banana Tree

Side elevation showing chimney — The Side Elevation

Primary bedroom with white mantel and basket of pinecones — Primary Bedroom · Living View

Snug with leather club chairs by the fire — The Snug · Beam Ceiling & Fire

Twin bedroom with ladder to loft — Upper Bedroom · Ladder to Loft

Loft bedroom with hand-hewn rafters — Loft Bedroom · Hand-Hewn Rafters

Yellow living room with white mantel and pine floors — The Yellow Living Room

Rear of house with mature plantings — Rear Elevation · Mature Gardens

Front facade, side view with shadows — The Front Facade · Side Light

The garden looking toward the rear lot — The Half-Acre · Looking East

Four Centuries on One Property

The history that survives here.

From the founding of Southold, through the British occupation of 1776, the manumission of Elymus Reeve in 1813, and into the modern North Fork — every era has left its mark on these grounds.

Era One

Founding & Early Reeve Ownership

1640

Southold & Mattituck are founded.

English colonists from Connecticut found the Town of Southold — the first English settlement in New York State. The meadowlands that will become Mattituck are used as shared pasture, setting the rural, agricultural tone that still defines the North Fork today.

1661–62

Mattituck lands are laid out.

Southold divides its common lands into individual allotments running from Mattituck Creek to the Sound. These early grants shape the future footprint of the Reeve family farm and the land where 750 Reeve Avenue now stands.

Late 1600s

The Purrier–Reeve "Great Farm."

William Purrier assembles a 400+ acre farm at Mattituck. His grandson James Reeve is placed on the property and later inherits the "dwelling house, lands and meadows," establishing the long Reeve connection to this landscape.

1715

A church, a cemetery, a family anchor.

The Mattituck Presbyterian Church is organized. Parishioner James Reeve 2nd donates land for the burying ground, tying the Reeve name permanently to the spiritual and social center of the hamlet.

c.1760

The homestead is built.

Construction of the timber-frame house that survives today as 750 Reeve Avenue. Built during the colonial period, the home sits within the heart of the multi-generation Reeve farm at Mattituck.

Era Two

The Revolutionary War & British Occupation, 1775–1783

1776

War reaches the North Fork.

Following the Battle of Long Island, British forces occupy Southold. Fertile farms — including the Reeve holdings — are turned into a "breadbasket" to supply troops based in New York City.

1776–80

Refugees & divided loyalties.

Nearly half of Southold's residents flee across Long Island Sound to Connecticut as "refugees of 1776." Members of the extended Reeve family appear on militia rolls and refugee petitions, while other relatives likely remain on the Mattituck farm to safeguard the homestead.

1776–83

Mattituck under military rule.

British troops are stationed in and around Mattituck; the hamlet serves as an administrative hub. The Reeve farm lies within this occupied zone, its fields and livestock subject to requisition and patrols.

1776–83

The creeks as lifelines.

Mattituck Creek and nearby inlets become covert crossing points between Patriot Connecticut and occupied Long Island. Families and supplies move quietly along the same shoreline that frames the wider Reeve estate today.

1783

Peace, & a return.

With the war's end, refugees return to find farms strained by debt and wartime damage. The Reeve property endures through this upheaval, remaining in family hands and continuing as a working North Fork farm.

Era Three

19th Century — Farming, Faith & Freedom

1783–1813

Slavery & a path to freedom.

Like many large Long Island farms, Reeve-held lands rely in part on enslaved labor. In 1813, Elymus (Limas) Reeve — born enslaved in Southold Town — is formally manumitted, his freedom recorded in town documents.

1810s–70

Elymus Reeve, farmer & community leader.

After manumission, Elymus establishes his own farm along Main Road in Mattituck and becomes a respected farmer and lay religious leader. His son, Reverend John B. Reeve, later becomes a professor at Howard University. A New York State historic marker on Main Road today commemorates this chapter.

Mid-1800s

The village grows around the farm.

Mills, shops and homes begin to cluster around Main Road and Mattituck Creek. Through it all, the Reeve farms remain reference points in local descriptions — evidence of their enduring size and importance.

1858

The Mattituck map is published.

An 1858 map of Mattituck — included in the historic record below — clearly identifies multiple Reeve parcels along what is now Reeve Avenue, including the property on which 750 Reeve Avenue stands.

Era Four

Subdivision, Preservation & the Modern Home

Late 1800s

From great farm to village neighborhood.

As transportation improves and tourism grows, large estates on the North Fork slowly subdivide. Portions of the historic Reeve farm become smaller homesteads along what will be known as Reeve Avenue, while core agricultural parcels remain in cultivation.

1906

History captured in print.

Rev. Charles E. Craven publishes A History of Mattituck, Long Island, N.Y., noting that six generations of James Reeve's descendants have retained most of the original "great farm." The book preserves the memory of the Reeve estate and its central place in the hamlet.

Late 20th c.

Recognized as a landmark.

Southold's historic preservation efforts identify the Reeve-Pim House on Reeve Avenue as a significant 18th-century dwelling tied to one of the town's founding families. The property is formally inventoried by the Town of Southold Landmarks Preservation Commission as MK-84.

2020s

Honoring the Reeve story.

A New York State historic marker on Main Road commemorates Elymus Reeve, while local records recognize 750 Reeve Avenue as a circa-1760 home set within the original Reeve family estate at Mattituck — where centuries of North Fork history converge on a single property.

1858 map of Mattituck showing Reeve family parcels along Reeve Avenue — Map of Mattituck, 1858 — Charles, J., D., E., G.B. & Pike Reeve parcels along Reeve Avenue

A Document of the Land

Six generations on one farm.

The 1858 map of Mattituck names the Reeve family on parcel after parcel along what is now Reeve Avenue — including the land on which 750 Reeve Avenue stands. By 1906, the historian Rev. Charles E. Craven could write that the descendants of James Reeve had retained "most of the great farm" for over two hundred and fifty years.

The home you see today survives from that same continuous chapter — a chapter that began before the United States and continues, intact, into the twenty-first century.

The Reeve-Pim House. The home was occupied by the Pim family from the late twentieth century, and is recorded in town documents as the "Reeve-Pim House." It has been continuously cared for, restored where necessary, and lived in as a working family home — never abandoned, never gut-renovated. Its woodwork, plaster, wrought-iron hardware, and 12/12 windows remain almost entirely original.

Three Decades, Unchanged

The same facade, thirty years apart.

A snapshot from a family album in the 1990s alongside the house today. Untouched in form, lovingly maintained in detail.

The front facade in the 1990s — **1990s** · Family Album

The front facade today — **Today** · 2026

A surviving piece of colonial America.

Beams hewn by hand, more than two centuries before yours.

Floorboards as wide as a man's stride.

Six chimneys, all still drawing.

The same rooms, reimagined.

The Primary Bedroom

The Beamed Living Room

The Formal Parlor

The Brick-Chimney Bedroom

The Sun-Lit Parlor

The Double Sitting Room

The Guest Bedroom

The Floral Bedroom

The Upper Bedroom

The Loft Bedroom

The half-acre, with a pool quietly added.

The house, as it lives today.

The history that survives here.

Founding & Early Reeve Ownership

Southold & Mattituck are founded.

Mattituck lands are laid out.

The Purrier–Reeve "Great Farm."

A church, a cemetery, a family anchor.

The homestead is built.

The Revolutionary War & British Occupation, 1775–1783

War reaches the North Fork.

Refugees & divided loyalties.

Mattituck under military rule.

The creeks as lifelines.

Peace, & a return.

19th Century — Farming, Faith & Freedom

Slavery & a path to freedom.

Elymus Reeve, farmer & community leader.

The village grows around the farm.

The Mattituck map is published.

Subdivision, Preservation & the Modern Home

From great farm to village neighborhood.

History captured in print.

Recognized as a landmark.

Honoring the Reeve story.

Six generations on one farm.

The same facade, thirty years apart.

A property set between water and water.

A private showing of the Reeve-Pim House.