Open House at Owl Hill
May 24, 2025 from 11am – 1pm
(Below you can read a history into the purchase of this property, championed by your FSA and Leg. Trotta)
Suffolk County Legislator Rob Trotta, who helped to save this Smithtown property from development so that it could be preserved by Suffolk County, invites you to visit this 1903 historic estate on 27.6 acres on Saturday, May 24.
Owl Hill is located at 99 Sunken Meadow Road, Fort Salonga. (Corner of Meadow Glen Road and Sunken Meadow Road)
For more information, please call Legislator Trotta’s district office at 631-854-3900.
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The Owl Hill estate spans 27.6 acres of pristine Fort Salonga landscape. The estate contains a turn of the century mansion, whose construction began in 1897. Prior to its sale to a developer in 2020, the home was owned by the Ryan family for over 60 years, for whom it served as a weekend retreat away from the high rises and bustle of New York City.
About two decades ago, Ms. Ryan entered into discussions with the Fort Salonga Association and the Town of Smithtown, where she expressed interest in preserving the property.
Over those two decades, the FSA worked closely with Ms. Ryan and her family, arranging many meetings between the FSA, the Ryans and Town, County and State officials. As always, the biggest issue was funding.
Owl Hill is an exquisite property, worth millions of dollars. Despite the uphill battle, the FSA kept at it. About a decade ago, board members Frank Cappaccio and Ryan Hild were able to secure 1 million dollars in grants - $500,000 from the State of New York Office of Parks and recreation and a matching grant of $500,000 from the Town of Smithtown. The million dollars was to be used to purchase and preserve about 8 acres from the Ryans. Unfortunately, the Ryans received a more enticing offer from a private developer who purchased the entirety of the property for $6.2 million in 2020.
Despite the sale to a developer, who planned to build 17-20 homes in a 1/2 acre cluster community on the site, the FSA stayed vigilant, working tirelessly with the Town, County, State and local Not for Profits to come up with a plan to preserve the property in its entirety. Fortunately for the people of Fort Salonga, Leg. Rob Trotta never took his eye off the prize. Mr. Trotta visited the property for countless meetings with the Ryan family over the last decade and he felt it would be a shame if it were developed. As such, he brought the matter to the County Legislature’s attention, and he arranged for the County to appraise the property and negotiate a potential purchase price from the Developer. After the first offer was rejected, Legislator Trotta and the Builder worked with the Town of Smithtown to have the Developer’s subdivision application reviewed. Once the subdivision was approved by the Town, the County re-appraised the property and increased its offer to purchase the largest act of preservation in Fort Salonga since Sunken Meadow State Park. Late last year the developer agreed on the purchase price, and the sale closed last November.
We are hoping that the residents of Fort Salonga see the value this property holds and will utilize this beautiful park land. We will keep you up to date on what and when, but in the mean time we hope to see you at the Open House this Saturday.
Your Fort Salonga Association Board of Directors
1019 Fort Salonga Rd, Northport, NY 11768, USA
631.525.3937 Keith Macartney . President
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Contact info for the Fort Salonga Association (FSA):
Email: fortsalongaassociation@gmail.com
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Phone: 631-525-3937 ( Keith Macartney - FSA President )
Updated Contact information for the 2 Towns (Huntington and Smithtown) can be found
when going to CONTACTS and selecting the appropriate Town dropdown. There you will also find links for the respective Town's Trash and Recycling Calendars, including dates for shredding and hazardous materials days.
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The Fort Salonga Association
We now have 2 calendars published on the site, due to specific limitations of each.
The first is the Fort Salonga only calendar, with events and happenings pertaining only to Fort Salonga, its residents, their families and friends. These events are intended for your information and enjoyment, so we ask that you limit friends if not from Fort Salonga, but they are always welcomed. Who knows, they may be your neighbor some time down the road.
The second calendar is for township(s) events, like parades, sidewalk fairs and exhibitions, etc. We will try to include as many as of these events as possible, but again, due to calendar limitations we may not be able to list them all. If not, our apologies to those affected.