Dove Building - 2017
Dove Building, Mills Building, John Conklin
Dove Building (2 East Main Street, originally the Mills Building) is a large commercial block building remodeled during the 2000s in a Tudor and brick style. Matching brown and black pinstripe awnings unify the Dove Building on its East Main Street and South Ocean Avenue elevations. Chase’s Wall Map shows “Roe’s Store” on this corner in 1857. Jesse Mills replaced the original general store with a three-story building constructed by Emerson Terrell. It became the Hammond Mills General Store in 1876, when Mills and L. Fremont Hammond became partners. Hammond was also president of the Union Savings Bank for some time and vice-president of the Patchogue Bank.
Jesse Mills added a building called the Arcade, and in 1897 added a four-story building between the General Store and the Arcade. Later all were expanded to three and four stories. Behind the Arcade was a yard for shoppers’ horse drawn carriages. Hammond-Mills sold groceries, hardware, carpets and furniture. Some locals traded produce, eggs and handmade items.
In 1923, Jesse C. Mills sold the Mills Building to Corydon Searing, whose widow sold to Hyman Steiner in 1945. In 1945, Woolworth’s 5 & 10 faced East Main Street. Edgar Sharp’s Real Estate and Insurance office, Blum’s and Whelan Drugs were on South Ocean Avenue. The Patchogue Club for Servicemen, Suffolk County Probation Department, Children’s Court, Christian Science Reading Room and Maibour’s Typewriter Service occupied second floor offices. The third and fourth floors were unoccupied. The Mills Building and the Arcade building were destroyed by fire in 1956.
Pharmacist John Conklin stands at his Mills Building Store on East Main Street in 1902. Patchogue’s first telephone was installed in Conklin’s Pharmacy in 1904.