Humes Preserve – 27 Acres Protected in 2015
Location:  349 Oyster Bay Road, Mill Neck
(Between Dogwood Lane and Frost Mill Road)
Parking: Available on site

The property consists of meadow, woodland and freshwater wetlands and includes preserved land owned by Nassau County.  The Humes Preserve is at the heart of a corridor of 150 protected contiguous acres of open spaces that also includes the adjoining Shu Swamp, Francis Pond conservation areas and the Humes Japanese Stroll Garden.  These conserved areas and surrounding lands are the headwaters to a series of rivers, lakes and waterways (both freshwater and tidal) that eventually reach the Oyster Bay National Wildlife Refuge and the Long Island Sound.  Conservation of this property helped complete one of the most important wetland and open space corridors on the North Shore of Long Island.

History

The Schmidlapp-Humes Estate, now known as the Humes Preserve, has a long history that dates to the Matinecock Indian tribe’s occupation of the area. It includes 17th century boundary disputes between the Dutch and English and milling and farming from the 18th to 20th centuries. Its transformation to a country estate began in the early 1920s, during the second wave of the Country Place Era. This was a time when wealthy New York City families sought a retreat from city living and commissioned prominent architects and landscape architects to create their country estates.

What you may find there

Snapping Turtles, Blue-winged Warblers, a diversity of woodpeckers, spring ephemeral plants including rue anemone and red trillium, a formal garden, visitors’ hut and undulating woodland and meadow trails….