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With the “revival” of Shands General in 2024, let’s take a look back at the historic building.
Before it became a place for suds and buds, the former BrickHouse Brewery building on West Main Street in Patchogue was a go-to shop for groceries and pitchforks.
“You could even buy a plow that you could hook up to a horse,” said local historian Steve Lucas, also the Greater Patchogue Historical Society treasurer, reading from an old newspaper ad.
The building operated as Shands for about 80 years after James G. Shand bought the store from John S. Havens in 1911, according to historic references.
It’s believed to be the oldest mercantile building in Patchogue, though Lucas had no primary source materials on hand that could show how old the current building actually is.
It was built around 1850.
“It was a combination of hardware, and early on they even had groceries,” said Lucas. “It was an old-fashioned, old-time general store. They had just about everything.”
Shands closed around 1990 and the BrickHouse owners purchased the site of the future restaurant and brewery from the Shand family in 1995.
Under relatively new ownership, the BrickHouse Brewery’s decades-long run in the village came to an end. The upstairs was turned into The State Room, an intimate cocktail lounge, with the downstairs now hosting Shands General.
Both eateries, upstairs and down, have proved to be instantly popular.
Read more here.
