Reporter Photo Quiz: What is that? Oct. 16, 2026

If you know, let us know. Send your responses to [email protected] or phone 631-275-1859.

Last week’s mystery photo (see right) was of the passenger cabin of a North Ferry Boat. Roger McKeon, Ed Hydeman and Elizabeth McKee were onboard with the correct answer. Jim Ash wrote: “Not sure if it’s North or South ferry as I’ve always stayed on deck …. I’m formerly of North Sea and now sadly of N.J.” Catherine Harper thought it was the North Ferry waiting room, but she receives an Honorable Mention for getting close.

Michael Williams called with the correct answer. Those who responded correctly on our Facebook page were Carleen Washington, Suzanna E Tulino, Marianne Sheppard, Richard M. Osmer — ‘Warm area on the ferry when you’re not in a vehicle” — Kathryn O’Hagan, Carole L. Bevan Fitts, Robin Lockwood Hall, and Brook Aquilino.

According to the New York Times and the long-defunct Brooklyn Eagle, Captain Jonathan Preston, an English immigrant, was granted a charter to operate a ferry in 1859 by New York State and established scheduled service between the Island and Greenport. As Ralph Duvall, author of “The History of Shelter Island,” wryly noted, the captain was “one of those fortunate men that everyone swore by and none swore at.” The ferry company changed hands several times over the years and was purchased in the 1870s by the Shelter Island Grove and Camp Meeting Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

It was around the turn of the century when “the Rev. J. A. Aspinwall brought the first automobile to the Island,” Mr. Duvall writes. And, in 1958, according published reports, the North Ferry terminal in Greenport was moved from Main Street to its current location at Third Street next to the Long Island Rail Road Station.