4. Patriot’s Rock
In the Old Setauket historic district is a large boulder partially hidden by woods that was left by a retreating glacier. Patriot forces used the boulder for cover during the Battle of Setauket and fired at British forces from behind it, thus giving it the name Patriot’s Rock. Additionally, Patriots mounted a canon by the rock and fired across the Village Green at the Presbyterian Church, which was fortified by Loyalist troops.
Plaque on Patriot’s Rock
The original Presbyterian Church no longer exists, but the present church was built in 1812 and contains the graves of spy Abraham Woodhull and early settler Richard Floyd. William Sidney Mount’s painting The Rock on the Green, which depicts Patriot’s Rock, hangs in the Long Island Museum of Art at Stony Brook. A plaque commemorating the 1777 “skirmish” was placed by the Mayflower Chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution in 1927.
The Setauket Presbyterian Church