William Floyd Estate in Mastic Beach gets a refresh
In 2025, 10,709 people visited the William Floyd Estate in Mastic Beach, the home of the only Long Islander to sign the Declaration of Independence. The National Park Service, which owns the site, hopes to increase those numbers. Credit: Elizabeth Sagarin
Many Long Islanders have driven down William Floyd Parkway or walked the halls of the schools in the district that bears the Founding Father’s name. Far fewer have visited the Mastic Beach estate that was home to Floyd and his family as well as at least 14 enslaved people.
The National Park Service, which owns the William Floyd Estate as part of Fire Island National Seashore, is hoping to welcome more to the historic site.
This winter, the NPS undertook a major revamping of the exhibits in the Floyd mansion — Old Mastic House — for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. Floyd and Francis Lewis, of Whitestone, Queens, were the two Long Island members of the Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of Independence.
“In 2026 we expect a large increase in visitation because we’ve shifted to opening the grounds year-round and the new themed museum experience,” National Seashore Superintendent Alexcy Romero said.
Visiting the estate
The mansion reopened May 2 for public tours, which are given on a first-come, first-serve basis Wednesdays through Sundays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Sept.30. Parking and admission to the grounds is free.
Even before the new exhibits, which include Floyd’s 1776 authorization from New York Gov. George Clinton to represent the state at the Second Continental Congress and an original portrait of Floyd, visitation has been slowly growing. It was 10,709 last year, up from only 3,948 in 2022.
Elizabeth Peace, associate deputy communications director for the U.S. Department of the Interior, said the NPS is working to make the site more accessible and welcoming.
“William Floyd Estate is a unique site within the National Park system,” said Peace. “Unlike many national parks, it is a historic home and cultural site located in a relatively quiet area of Long Island and offers a different visitor experience than destinations known primarily for large-scale recreation.”
An original portrait of Floyd and his secretary desk are among the artifacts on display at the estate. Credit: Michael A. Rupolo Sr.
WHAT’S NEW
Visitors will now see the large original 1793 portrait of Floyd painted by Ralph Earl hanging in the dining room, on loan from Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, next to his secretary desk and chair. The Floyd estate’s copy, which previously hung in that spot, has been lent to the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn for several months.
A new case in the room displays two Madeira wine bottles from 1790 inscribed “W Floyd” that he ordered from England and were never previously displayed. There are also candlesticks owned by Floyd, a fire starter that looks like a pistol, Floyd’s portable writing desk and his liquor chest intended for traveling. The floors in this and other rooms are protected by new, traditional-style rugs.
New displays in the parlor show objects used by the Floyd family and their servants on the estate, such as a maid’s uniform, a device for preparing flax to be made into cloth, bottles collected by the family during Prohibition and a tablecloth made by laborers at the estate.
The library includes new artifacts that focus on the family’s service to America, including John Gelson Floyd’s Civil War lieutenant’s uniform.
The house also now has a small gift shop behind a Dutch door.
More changes may be coming. “The NPS will continue to explore the possibilities of new programs for the 250th anniversary,” Romero said.
“The work addressed critical building needs,” Romero said. These included replacement of the wooden shake roof using historically appropriate materials and repair and repainting of deteriorated siding and shutters. Inside, the work included plaster repairs and painting.
The exhibit upgrades included improved security and conservation of artifacts, costing approximately $40,000. The nonprofit Eastern National, which runs the bookstores at national park sites, provided a $24,000 grant for that work.
Park Ranger Maura Donnelly gives a tour of the new items displayed at the house. Credit: Elizabeth Sagarin
ATTRACTING VISITORS
Georgette Grier-Key, executive director of the Eastville Community Historical Society, which preserves the story of a historically Black neighborhood in Sag Harbor, said the estate’s relatively low attendance reflects inadequate interpretation of its slavery history. Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement protested in 2020 seeking removal of the William Floyd statue on the corner of William Floyd Parkway and Montauk Highway in Shirley.
Grier-Key said better representation of Black people’s experience could increase visitors.
I do think when there is absence of interpretation and stagnation in exhibition and stale tours there are a direct connection to low participation.”
Retired Hofstra University professor Natalie Naylor, past president of the Nassau County Historical Society, visited and said she doubted the estate would see a visitor boom.
“The location probably is not conducive to larger numbers,” Naylor concluded, especially after being “closed for six years.”
Gary Ollet, president of the Mastic Peninsula Historical Society, and Diane M. Schwindt, a historical cooking demonstrator, at the William Floyd Estate during Tri-Hamlet Community Day this month. Credit: Elizabeth Sagarin
“The direct connection to the 250th should inspire visitation, but unfortunately the current exhibit is unlikely to lead to word-of-mouth recommendations.”
Peace said, “We do not speculate on the motivations of individual visitors or non-visitors.”
14 ENSLAVED RESIDENTS
The estate’s new exhibits highlight a longstanding question about how the site interprets the history of slavery at Old Mastic House.
Historical records show that William Floyd enslaved at least 14 people on the estate. National Park Service materials note that enslaved, indentured and Indigenous laborers contributed to the property’s operation and growth over generations. Crosses placed in the family cemetery honor their memory and printed materials recognize their contributions on the plantation.
“The site has a rare opportunity to interpret Northern slavery, which is still a surprise to many people,” said Naylor.
The National Park Service’s website notes that while the presence of enslaved people at the property appears contradictory to Floyd’s role in the fight for American freedom, the estate offers an opportunity to examine the complexities of the nation’s founding.
“We can shed light on our nation’s controversial past by telling well-rounded stories that allow us, as a people, to reconcile with the past to create a more equitable future,” the website states.
National Park Rangers move display cases into the home ahead of its May 2 reopening. Credit: Michael A. Rupolo Sr.
EXECUTIVE ORDER
The issue has taken on renewed significance as the federal government reviews how history is presented at national parks and historic sites. Earlier this year, the Department of the Interior directed parks to review interpretive materials under Secretary’s Order 3431, which implements President Donald Trump’s executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
Asked whether that review affected exhibits at the William Floyd Estate, the National Park Service Office of Public Affairs said in a statement, “No content at this park has been removed or rewritten to this date as part of the SO 3431 process.” All newly created exhibits “will adhere to this guidance as well,” it said.
Still, some historians and preservation advocates say the estate could do more to center the lives and experiences of the people who were enslaved there.
Grier-Key said she was disappointed after viewing the new exhibits.
“My initial thought was that the site was sterilized and stripped of the historiography — the generations of descendants and enslaved presence erased,” she said. Grier-Key said she plans to meet with estate staff to discuss the site’s interpretation of slavery and the experiences of enslaved people who lived and worked on the property.
There are few sites on Long Island with as storied a past as the William Floyd Estate.
Located on Park Drive in Mastic Beach, it was the home of the signer of the Declaration of Independence and other members of his family for more than 250 years. Eight generations of Floyds lived on the estate after Nicoll Floyd bought 4,400 acres with a six-room house in 1724.
Although William Floyd was a conservative landowner with a lot to lose if the British crushed the American rebellion, he actively supported the Patriot cause. Of the four New Yorkers who signed the Declaration of Independence, Floyd’s home is the only one still standing and open to the public.
He was born in Old Mastic House in 1734 and died in 1821. By the time he was 20, his parents, Nicoll and Tabitha Smith Floyd, had died and Floyd was forced to assume management of the estate and care for eight younger siblings. Cattle, sheep, grain, flax and wood for export to New York City were all produced there with the labor of 14 adult enslaved people as well as indentured servants, making Floyd one of Long Island’s largest slaveholders.
Floyd served as a colonel in the Suffolk County militia before the Revolution. During the war, Floyd’s family became refugees in Middletown, Connecticut, while he served with the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He was a member of Congress from 1774 to 1783, with a one-year break when he was a member of the New York State Senate in 1778.
With the family absent during the war, Loyalists occupied the house and looted Floyd’s possessions. When the British evacuated New York in 1783, Floyd returned to a decimated plantation. After the war, the family shifted from farming to business and politics, with the estate used for recreation.
Floyd served in the first U.S. Congress from 1789-1790 but failed to win reelection. In 1803, when he was 69, he deeded his estate to his son, Nicoll. Floyd is buried in the Westernville Presbyterian Church Cemetery upstate.
Floyd’s descendants expanded Old Mastic House to 25 rooms. By the 1970s, all but 613 acres had been sold. In 1976, William Floyd’s great-great-granddaughter, Cornelia Floyd Nichols, and her children donated the house to the National Park Service but retained rights for family members to be buried on the grounds. The cemetery includes graves of many members of the family and those they enslaved.
For more information, visit nps.gov/fiis/plan yourvisit/williamfloydestate.htm.
