"George Washington Dined Here" at Hart's Tavern

The tavern that gives the Hart's Tavern Cemetery its name no longer stands replaced by headstones and obelisks and other memorials, but the sign commemorating the visit of America's first president still stands tall in Patchogue, commissioned by the Greater Patchogue Historical Society. During President George Washington's tour of Long Island, he ate in this water-adjacent village April 22, 1790, something residents are still proud of today.

One of the oldest cemeteries in what is considered western Suffolk County (as opposed to the East Ends), many unusual monuments attest to the former existence of Long Island "bluebloods." Long Island families have found the Patchogue Cemetery/Episcopal Cemetery/Lake View Cemetery an ideal final resting place since the 1600s, and local legend has it that pockets of the graveyard are haunted. However, no evidence has yet been found to prove this.