The home of one of the Town of Huntington's early African American leaders is being deconstructed in an effort to salvage what remains of the crumbling structure.

Workers began the painstaking task of taking apart, by hand, the Peter Crippen House on Creek Road in Halesite on Thursday.

Piece by piece over the next two weeks, the north wing of the house — which may contain structural timbers from as early as the 17th century — will be dismantled, cataloged, studied and stored.

The salvageable pieces are being donated to the proposed Huntington African American Museum to eventually be reassembled and displayed. Experts also will analyze the salvaged timbers to confirm the age of the trees when they were harvested.

Town Historian Robert Hughes said the house is historically significant

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