Sally Spanburgh - The Southampton Cottages of Gin Lane: The Original Hamptons Summer Colony

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2012 by Sally Spanburgh

All rights reserved

Front cover: Over Look, in the Fair Lea Compound, as seen from the beach. Present day.

First published 2012

e-book edition 2012

ISBN 978.1.61423.450.0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Spanburgh, Sally.

The Southampton cottages of Gin Lane : the original Hamptons summer colony / Sally Spanburgh.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

print ISBN 978-1-60949-278-6

1. Historic buildings--New York (State)--Southampton. 2. Cottages--New York (State)--Southampton--History. 3. Vacation homes--New York (State)--Southampton--History. 4. Southampton (N.Y.)--Buildings, structures, etc. 5. Architecture, Domestic--New York (State)--Southampton. 6. Southampton (N.Y.)--History. 7. Southampton (N.Y.)--Biography. I. Title.

F129.S7S74 2012

974.725--dc23

2012006561

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

The essential challenge is to transform the isolation and self-interest within our communities into connectedness and caring for the whole.

Peter Block

Dedicated to preservationists everywhere in the hopes that they may be successful in educating the public at large that historic architecture is always relevant, always profitable and never replaceable.

Contents

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Acknowledgements

Putting this book together has been a tremendous undertaking in the overall grand scheme of my life and was only possible by juggling many personal and professional endeavors at the same time. But it has also been a thrill to compile, and I could not have done it without the support and help of many.

First and foremost, I have to thank my brother-in-law, Stephen Spanburgh, for teaching me everything he knows (well, I suspect he saved some secrets) about navigating the Suffolk County Clerks Office to learn, firsthand, the ownership history of all the cottages in this book, as well as hundreds more whose histories I research on a daily basis. Thanks also to so many others in the deed/title area at the County Clerks Office who so kindly answered other miscellaneous questions and provided cheerful camaraderie while doing so.

Thank you to Eric Woodward for unlimited access to his extraordinary collection of original postcards and photographs, without which this book would have hardly any images of cottages that no longer survive. I am also equally grateful for his interest in this project and the abundant amount of constructive and friendly input he offered, taking valuable time away from his own architectural practice to do so.

Thank you to the Southampton Historical Museum for the endless use of its resources and to its archivist, Mary Cummings, who happens to be a great inspiration to me as well as an accomplished author, for all her help, guidance, advice, encouragement and support.

Thank you to my readers, Mary Cummings, Eric Woodward, John Holden and Anne Surchin, for their time and constructive input, and to Anne especially for being a friend, mentor and inspiration on multiple levels and for her constant support, advice and encouragement in this project and other preservation endeavors.

Thank you to my whole family for their unconditional love, guidance, grounding and humor; to my husband for his support, patience, tolerance, handsomeness and the constant supply of digital cameras; to my beautiful, loving and terribly smart daughter for her patience, because at the young age of seven, it isnt easy to let your mom spend so much time with her laptop; to Inslee L. Copeland for introducing me to Tim Weller and his referral to The History Press; and to my grandfather for his contagious interest in genealogy and for giving me my first laptop.

Thank you to the New York State Historic Preservation Office and to Kathy Howe in particular for helping me to obtain 1978 inventory images of Gin Lane properties.

Thank you to the staff of the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton (a great library!) and particularly to Beth Gates for her supportive, speedy and exemplary sleuthing skills.

Thank you to Jason T. Poremba for the donation of his grandmothers scrapbook filled with incredible original photographs documenting the destruction of the 1938 hurricane.

Last but not least, thanks to all of the current and past owners or descendants of owners of the cottages described in this book who allowed me to wander around their properties taking photos and who shared their stories and photographs, their time and their knowledge, which was not readily available through traditional outlets and without which this book would have been left with an overall generic tone.

Introduction

I have lived in Southampton longer than I have lived anywhere else in my life, and Ive only lived here since 2001. My father worked for an insurance company, and before reaching the age of ten, I moved with my family seven times while he was transferred from place to place. These were great experiences that contributed to my education. I can even draw the floor plan and many of the elevations of most of the houses and apartments I have ever lived in, a sign from early on that I was destined for an architecture-related career. Now living in Southampton, and raising a child here, I am growing roots. I sometimes even feel more attached to this place than the locals seem to bethose who were born here, whose ancestors were born here and who have spent their whole lives here. I will never cease wondering how so many of them can feel so disconnected to a place that embodies so much history, especially when a lot of that history is directly related to them.

After working as an architect in Manhattan for several stimulating years, I moved to Southampton and began work for a local firm. After almost eight monotonous years, however, I woke up. I finally noticed the seemingly incredible amount of original and historic homes that were being extensively altered or completely demolished, along with their accessory structures, and couldnt for the life of me understand why. Southampton Village is incorporated and as such has local zoning ordinances that include codes designed to protect these valuable resources. What, then, would enable such destruction? The inconsistency of governing philosophies.

I turned to a mentor of mine and asked her, Why dont you become more involved in protecting village buildings from being torn down? Why dont you write letters or start petitions or speak out at public hearings? She replied, One day youll understand. Well, I do now. Fighting town hall is exhausting, intimidating and time-consuming and therefore not for everyone. However, governing entities rely on public input in order to make decisions that are in the best interest of the community. Whether you are alone or a part of a larger group, it is always important to participate in the public process of things if you truly want something to changeor stay the same, for that matter. As frustrating as it might be when one year the trustees or councilmen are strict and protective and the next, very lenient and unconcerned, you must keep at it. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.