Music Hall of Fame Gets Home of Its Own

By TAMMY LA GORCE

THE Long Island Music Hall of Fame was organized seven years ago “to start trumpeting the fact that all these amazing people come from Long Island,” according to the chairman of its board of directors, James Faith, of Miller Place.

Until recently, however, the nonprofit group — whose more than 70 inductees so far have included Louis Armstrong, Pat Benatar and Billy Joel — had no home of its own. With three gala induction ceremonies under its belt and a collection of donated memorabilia that has mostly been locked in storage in Garden City, the hall of fame has been “pretty much virtual,” Mr. Faith, 58, said.
That changed this month, when the town of Brookhaven approved an agreement to allow the group to move into the historic First National Bank building in the village of Port Jefferson. The town-owned building, which had been vacant for about five years, according to Councilman Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld, will be the hall’s first headquarters.
Mr. Faith said he expected the 6,000-square-foot space to be open to the public as a museum in about a year, after renovations.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Mr. Faith said. Negotiations between the town and the group, whose mission is mostly educational — “we do scholarships and try to nurture the future of music from Long Island,” he said — have been taking place since 2007.
Mr. Fiore-Rosenfeld, 42, of East Setauket, led the push to offer the space, for which the group is paying a token rent of $10. The agreement allows the hall of fame to operate for 15 years in the building with a five-year option to renew, said Beth Krakower, a spokeswoman for the group.
“Long Island didn’t have the respect of the world in terms of the number and depth of musicians that have worked here,” Mr. Fiore-Rosenfeld said. “I looked at this as a wonderful piece of parchment on which they could write a whole new composition.”
Not everyone in town was gung-ho about the project.
“The taxpayers didn’t want to spend a whole lot of money,” Mr. Fiore-Rosenfeld said. “We needed to make sure it wasn’t going to be a constant drain. And the town council needed to make sure the hall of fame was capable of operating as they articulated,” meaning that the hall would not rely on the town to pay salaries, utility bills or other costs.
Ultimately, Mr. Fiore-Rosenfeld said, “we saw their business plan, and that they would be self-sufficient.”
Now, Mr. Faith and the other hall-of-fame representatives can start working toward their vision. “We want to have an exhibit area, a performance space, a classroom that will serve as a resource area,” he said. “We want to see school buses pulling up every day.”
“It’s a great relief” to be in Port Jefferson, he added. TAMMY LA GORCE