Ward Melville

On Old Town Road, north of route 347, stands the enormous and majestic Ward Melville High School (click for WMHS web site) with tall, white columns that make the building look pretty. There is a clock tower that can be seen from far away. On the front of the school is a bas relief of the ADORNA, which first sailed in 1870 after it was built in the Setauket shipyard. It is said to be the biggest vessel ever built in Suffolk County. Inside the building, there is a mosaic of Caleb Brewster and his crew getting off their whaleboat after pulling into Setauket. The first graduating class was in 1969 and had 307 students. The school was named after Ward Melville, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Melville, Jr.  

John Ward Melville was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 5, 1887. Mr. Ward Melville was named after his grandfather, John B. Macconnell and his great-uncle, John Quincy Adams Ward. He was of Scottish-Ulster descent and it did not say why he is known as Ward rather than John.

He went to Adelphi Academy in New York and went to college at Columbia. When he was in college, he was a member of the college newspaper and in his senior year he became the president of the college newspaper. He graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Arts and kept his interest in Columbia by being a member of the Alumni clubs. His parents began summering in the Three Villages in 1900. Ward Melville worked his way up at the shoe business that his father started in 1892, and was elected Vice President in 1916. He served in World War I as a captain in the Quartermaster Corps. He was elected president of the family corporation in 1930 and the chairman of the board in 1956.

In 1918 he married Dorothy Bigelow, and had four children; Margaret Blackwell, Ruth Berlin, Jr., and sons David and Frank, III. For many years Mr. Melville spent much of his time as a member of the Setauket school district board and was its President when he retired in June 1964. Mr. Melville was named Chairman of the Council of the State University at Stony Brook by Governor Averill Harriman.

Ward Melville was mainly responsible for the Stony Brook Restoration, which began in 1944. Some of the important landmarks that the Melvilles restored are the Caroline Church, the Thompson House, Brewster and Mount houses, the Stony Brook Grist Mill and the Frank Melville Memorial Park and Mill. He restored the Stony Brook Village Green area on Main Street in Stony Brook. Today you can get ice cream at the Brook House, go shopping at the many gift shops, go to the post office, walk around, or just relax on the green and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

Ward Melville died June 5^th 1977 at the age of 90 in New York. He is buried in the family plot in the Caroline Church’s graveyard.

All of us in Three Village community thank Ward Melville for his generous contributions to help restore and preserve our history.