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George Washington in Gilbert Stuart's unfinished 1796 Athenaeum portrait: head and shoulders, the rest of the canvas left bare
George Washington (The Athenaeum Portrait), Gilbert Stuart, 1796, unfinished. Jointly owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Revolution and Occupation

George Washington

First U.S. President

1732–1799

Washington's 1790 Long Island tour connects Islip's Revolutionary landscape to the new republic. The annotated 1798 Conklin publication quotes Washington's diary from April 21–22, 1790, including a visit to "Squire Thompson's" house and his departure from "Mr. Thompson's" the next morning. The notes identify that house as Sagtikos Manor, still standing on Montauk Highway.

Why they matter

Washington's stop gives Islip a direct connection to the early presidency and the post-Revolutionary nation.

Connection to today

His visit makes Sagtikos a symbol of transformation: a landscape of occupation became part of the route of the first president of the United States.

Sources

  1. Nathaniel Conklin, "Description of the Town of Islip in Suffolk County," 1798 (annotated, Town of Islip Historian's Office), quoting Washington's diary, April 21–22, 1790.
  2. George J. Munkenbeck, "Isaac Thompson — A Man on a Tightrope."
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