User:Moishewolf/sandbox

Dr. Hallock Luce.

Dr. Luce was born in 1892, in Jamesport Long Island, and was the first Doctor to practice medicine there. He died in 1975 at the age of 83. An old-fashioned General Practitioner, he never sent a bill, Dr. Luce relied on families to pay him when and if they could.

Dr. Luce attended Amherst and graduated from Columbia College of Physicians and surgeons.

The 90+-year-old building where Dr. Luce practiced in and called home was built it in 1927, he and his family lived there until his death, according to Richard Wines, chair of the towns landmarks commission.

The side wing of the building was the office, and waiting room and the rest was a residence, said Mr. Wines, a former patient who was delivered by Dr. Luce in 1946 in Greenport because there wasn’t a hospital in Riverhead at the time. Mr. Wines added that Dr. Luce also delivered his mother in 1920 at her family’s home. “You went into this little room, and there was this desk piled high with papers, and there was Dr. Luce,” Mr. Wines recalled.”

In 1942 upon the death of Judith Ann Hamm, her parents expressed a desire that her eyes be donated to the eye bank for restoration. The eye bank was notified, and the necessary equipment was sent to the Eastern Long Island Hospital, where her healthy corneas were successfully removed by Dr. Hallock Luce, and Dr. Donald Currie. The corneas were eventually received by two Doctors who were in immediate need of them for their patents.

The doctors most rewarding legacy, however, was delivering most of the town’s children during his practice where generations still remember him and his contributions to Jamesport.

In 2016 the property was purchased by Mr. Itai and Dr. Sagit Vishnia and was completely renovated while keeping the architectural and historical significance of the facility. The Solutions Office Professional Building for clinicians in the mental health practices, which they operate, now returns to its roots in medicine.

The building is part of the Riverhead historic district and is recognized as a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.