History of the Fletcher Booker Homestead
The Fletcher Booker Homestead at 1185 Northville Turnpike has
been declared an official historical town landmark - the first to
celebrate Riverhead's rich African-American history, according to
commission chairman Richard Wines. Fletcher Booker was a
remarkable man, the grandson of slaves, and his equally remarkable
wife, Lizzie (Nee Banks), were both born in Virginia.
Fletcher Booker was 17 when he arrived in Riverhead from
Cumberland County, VA., in 1911. He worked various jobs,
finally saving enough money to buy property on Elton Ave, where he
built a home for his family with his own hands, using mostly
recycled materials. By that time, he had already encouraged
Lizzie, with whom he grew up in Virginia, to come north where there
was work, and romance quickly followed. Something of a real
estate developer, Mr. Booker had also subdivided his Elton Street
property, using the proceeds to buy the farm land on Northville
Turnpike.
The Bookers were among the first blacks in Riverhead to own
and operate a a farm, in their case, a then-scrubby, sandy-soiled
28 acres on both sides of Northville Turnpike. Mr. Booker
bought it in a foreclosure sale in 1939 and made it produce a
variety of fruits and vegetables for local delivery and shipment to
city markets.
Fletcher and Lizzie Booker were also instrumental in forming
the Riverhead First Baptist Church. Lizzie Booker, in fact,
was one of the church's founding trustees. Like their friends
from Virginia, the Bookers were part of the Great Migration of
African-Americans from the South.
He was always proud of the fact that he could offer
land to families and friends at a price that they might not
otherwise have been able to purchase. It is a noble honor to
preserve the homestead where Mr. Booker, with his farming skills,
and Lizzie Booker, with her managerial skills, were able to turn a
lemon of a farm into lemonade.
