Our History

Our story begins back on April 28th, 1948 with the formation of the Babylon Rod and Gun Club in the Village of Babylon. Meetings were held at member’s homes and land was leased locally for hunting and shooting.

In 1955, the Club purchased 59.34 acres of land in the Lakeland section of Lake Ronkonkoma (oddly on Peconic Street) and started to build an all-round gun club. Hunting fields were made, simple ranges were set up and by 1960 the Club had a clubhouse, a 50 yard pistol, 100 yard small bore, and a 200 yard rifle range as well as one skeet field and two trap fields.

Unfortunately, in July of 1970, a fire broke out and destroyed the clubhouse. The Town of Islip was also becoming more developed, which compelled the members to begin looking for property with water and a buffer zone that would not be subject to developers.

Jessie May Woolworth Donahue

All of our property and buildings (known as both Woolodge and Riverhead) were owned by Woolworth (Wooly) Donahue’s mother, Jessie May Woolworth Donahue. She purchased the existing game preserve for her son on October 8th, 1934, and Wooly, who never worked, used the buildings and property for hunting and entertaining his friends. In fact, most of the surrounding land as far south to Mill Road, north into the Grumman property, and east to Edwards Ave. was owned by Jessie, once named the richest woman in the United States.

Jessie married James Paul Donahue II, on February 12th, 1912. James had made a fortune in the fat rendering business. After he committed suicide in April 1931, Jessie never remarried. On November 11th, 1971, she passed away.

Woolworth (Wooley) Donahue

Wooly first married Gretchen Wilson Hearst, former wife of John Randolph Hearst, and granddaughter of Stonewall Jackson, on January 27th, 1940. They divorced in 1946 and he then married Judith Claire Church of Manorville on November 3rd, 1960. She gave birth to Wooly’s only child, also named Judith, on February 4th, 1961. In 1964, this marriage too ended in divorce. Wooly quickly married Mary Hartline, a well-known actress, on December 26th, 1964. He died of a heart attack while suffering from throat cancer in Palm Beach on April 5th, 1972.

On October 4th, 1972, we purchased our Manorville property for $630k (approximately $4,405,418.18 in today’s dollars) from the estate of Jessie Woolworth Donahue.

On July 6th, 1977, our club’s name was changed to Peconic River Sportsman’s Club.