BrickHouse Brewery & Restaurant

The BrickHouse Brewery building, at the corner of Havens Avenue and Main Street, is the oldest commercial building in Patchogue. It was built around 1850 as a dry goods store and was operated by John S. Havens until 1914 when James G. Shand purchased it.

How the building looked as Shand’s, before we purchased it from the Shand family in 1995. The photo at right shows how the building looked as Shand’s, before we purchased it from the Shand family in 1995. The family operated a hardware store here until 1990. The sign you see was revealed after we removed several layers of paint from the building, during a renovation.

We kept the sign in place after an informal poll of village residents showed an overwhelming desire to do so. The building has quite a colorful history. Its foundation is built from ship ballast, which was plentiful at that time in this shipbuilding community on Great South Bay. During the Civil War, the building was a stop on the underground railroad, and escaped slaves were hidden in the basement. Many old-time Patchogue residents remember Shand’s as the kind of store that had everything. Today, the BrickHouse Brewery is known as a must-visit for fine food and great beer.