Drive down Middle Road in Bayport and there is a hidden gem that if you don’t know is there, you would never see.

But make a left turn down a bumpy dirt road with tall beach grass on either side and as the road opens up, you are presented with Meadow Croft Estate: a beautiful, pale-yellow Victorian mansion that was the summer home of the John E. Roosevelt family.

The original farmhouse, built in the late 1800s, was added on by the Roosevelts in the mid-19th century and saved from destruction in the late 1980s when a local fire department wanted to burn it down for practice.

This Victorian home has been lovingly restored to its former glory. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic places. Each detail was painstakingly recreated from historic photographs, from the furniture to the wallpaper.

The one thing that was missing was authentic lighting.

According to Frank Liebfried, treasurer of the Bayport-Blue Point Historical Society, the components for the original lighting were there, but they were not set up to work and they did not have period-accurate fixtures for them.

So, they were using lights from Home Depot, which impacted the authentic experience.

Then, along came Erich Haesche, also a member of the BBP Historical Society and an enthusiast of all things antique, especially antique lighting. He has been collecting antique lighting fixtures for many years and now that he is retired, he is able to dedicate all of his time to his passion: restoring lighting in historic homes.

With the help of yearly grants given by Legis. Anthony Piccirillo (R-District 8) and 10-plus years of discussion, Haesche has been able to restore most of the lighting at Meadow Croft with period-accurate fixtures.

Over the years that the mansion was occupied by the Roosevelts, they went through several types of lighting, including kerosene lights, gas lighting and finally electric.

With Haesche’s expertise, all of these forms of lighting are now represented at Meadow Croft. From the moment you walk into the front hallway, with its beautiful wrought-iron wall sconces, to the master suite with a historically accurate kerosene lamp that has a gorgeous flower pattern on the shade that matches the wallpaper almost perfectly, these little details really make the home come alive.

Each lighting fixture now has a beautiful glass shade that has been provided by Haesche from his personal collection. He calls this a “labor of love” for him.

Each room also has a lighting fixture that coordinates with the color scheme of the room. All the forms of antique lighting are represented, including beautiful kerosene lamps in the upstairs sitting room to an authentic desk lamp in the office. In what was the Roosevelts’ workroom there is now a display of the history of lighting.

Each display is lit with the same antique lighting that can now be found throughout the house and contains a visual history of electric lighting with examples of authentic light bulbs, fuse boxes and a piece of the original thick electric wiring that once helped light New York City in the early 1900s, which was unearthed at Ground Zero while they were restoring electricity in the area, and which Haesche was able to acquire and preserve as part of New York City’s past.

It’s a fascinating look at all the forms of lighting that Meadow Croft has used throughout its history; each gorgeous piece adds to the ambiance of this beautifully restored piece of history here on Long Island. And the effort continues to add more and more authenticity to Meadow Croft Estate.