The Plumb Mansion: Deer Range Farm

In 1872 Sarah Ives Plumb (1840-1877) and her husband James Neale Plumb (1834-1899) purchased 'Deer Range Farm', the 400-acre estate. The thirty-room mansion was decorated with a valuable collection of antiques and works of art collected by the Plumbs during their travels to foreign countries. 

After Sarah’s death, Plumb began making fantastical additions to the house, including a four-story central tower, numerous gables, arches and highly ornate and whimsical trim work. The farm itself consisted of woodlands, meadows, and 260 acres under cultivation for crops of corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, and fruit trees. A large icehouse, two lodges, piggery, poultry houses, corn crib, barns, carriage house, blacksmith shop, stables, cow barns, a boat house, and a bath house completed the assortment of outbuildings. 

James Ives Plumb, inherited the estate from his father. In 1903 he sold the estate, which over the years had increased to 700 acres, to George Campbell Taylor who merged it with his adjoining estate to create a 1,500-acre estate. The Plumbs and Taylors continued to call the estate 'Deer Range Farm'. 

The house stood in what today is Heckscher State Park. Parts were cut up and salvaged, reused for other buildings and houses, but the main house was eventually demolished in 1909 and no longer stands today. 

Photo: Plumb Mansion. Courtesy: East Islip Historical Society