east hampton (pop 20k), aka “the playground of the rich” is one of if not thee chi-chi-ist of the hamptons. It was founded in 1648 by farmers and fishermen that came over the sound from connecticut. Some families trace their lineage back 12 generations to the village of maidstone in east anglia on the eastern shore of  england. The town still has some laws and governing bodies that date back to it’s founding under king charles I of england.

 

for example, get a load of this:

 

east hampton is the summer home to ny’s ego-driven movers and shakers, many of whom frequently try to do battle with one of these ancient governing bodies, the town trustees, who hold legal title to the waterways and land under the waterways in the town. The trustees hold title by virtue of a land patent from a colonial governor (dongan) which predates the existence of the state of new york and yet has repeatedly been upheld by the courts of new york.

 

Also notable, the town also incorporates the 5 sq mi. gardiner’s island, the largest privately owned island in the usa. It was the site of the first english settlement in new york in 1639 (but not the 1st European settlement, which was the dutch up near albany in 1615 and in new amsterdam in 1625). later, the infamous pirate captain kidd was hanged after the introduction of booty he buried there was introduced as evidence at his trial.

 

for fun -- the formerly fishing oriented town was the home of frank mundus, the inspiration for captain quint in ‘jaws.’

 

the old church is missing a steeple

 

the hook mill

 

The mill was built in 1806 and incorporated the main post of the 1736 Hook Mill. Nathaniel Dominy VII's "Register of Wind, Weather R Doings" documented the mill as being surprisingly active from I887 through I908 when it ceased operation. The Village of East Hampton bought the mill and the lot in 1922 and restored the mill to working order in 1939. It operated seasonally into the 1950's. The village made additional repairs in 1984-1985.

 

An old methodist church nearby

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the huntting inn

http://www.thepalm.com/sitemain.cfm?site_id=31

 

the osborne-jackson house (1723)

http://www.easthampton.com/history/osborn-jackson.html

 

 

 

 

 

the town hall is from the early 1800’s

 

the old town hall still exists as long island’s oldest government structure (1731)

 

more shopping

 

 

 

 

Clinton academy (1784), the 1st chartered secondary school in new york state

http://www.easthamptonhistory.org/

 

 

another view

 

 

 

 

 

gardiner’s mill (1804)

 

all the gardiner’s & more are buried in the cemetery across the street from the windmill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

random rich guy home

 

bonus:  lots of artist's lived out here

nearby in the hamlet of springs, a part of east hampton, is the jackson pollock-lee krasner home

http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/pkhouse.nsf

 

 

the pollock-krasner house

 

some pollock estate out houses, full of paint splatters no doubt

 

marsh behind the property

 

jackson pollock died less than a mile up the road in a suicidal drunken car crash

 

*** ta taa east hampton -- more hamptons to come ***

 

 

Looks kinda...average.

yep. while the hedges may be average, i suppose the hedge funds are not.

Right.

here's how i really feel about the hamptons. the most unique thing out there is nature -- the setting and the stunning beach/dune landscape (it's not like mentor headlands, nor michigan, indiana or oregon dunes).

 

also, the older 1600-1700-1800 era structures are interesting, as is the history.

 

the churches & cemeteries are beautiful if somewhat less interesting, being familiar new england styles. ditto the typical beach town stuff. the shopping, not as ritzy as i would have thought, is also only fairly interesting. it's small beach versions of more familiar shops. the wealthy homes are also quite a mixed bag, some gorgeous and some just....raiders of the lost ark eye-melting hideous (particularly on the supposedly acclaimed architectural row along dune road of westhampton).

 

the main streets, other than being in full use, are typical of anywhere. there are a lot of ugly 'added fronts' to small homes and structures along them.

 

 

So, do you know if the style of this house above is native solely to New England (and its settlers on Long Island), or does it imitate the style of East Anglia as well?

i think maybe a little bit of a mix of both places? i read something that said the styles of that era are relatively the same on eastern long island and east anglia, but the woodwork is much different. there was a lot more variety of wood types used in the long island homes.

 

also, looking around, many homes seemed to need constant wood shingling replacements. i dk if that is the case in england, i would imagine so. this is certainly a home style that needs a lot of constant upkeep.

 

btw i've never been there so i googled east anglia and poked around --- nothing looked similar, but the pics i saw were new homes or village centers so that was inconclusive of anything.

Did you see Ina Garten running around :laugh:

i think maybe a little bit of a mix of both places? i read something that said the styles of that era are relatively the same on eastern long island and east anglia, but the woodwork is much different. there was a lot more variety of wood types used in the long island homes.

 

also, looking around, many homes seemed to need constant wood shingling replacements. i dk if that is the case in england, i would imagine so. this is certainly a home style that needs a lot of constant upkeep.

 

btw i've never been there so i googled east anglia and poked around --- nothing looked similar, but the pics i saw were new homes or village centers so that was inconclusive of anything.

 

I am obliged to give my 2 cents here as I grew up in East Anglia in a little village called Cavendish and I have lived there most of my life (now based in London Town). My wife is American and comes from a gritty mill town in Massachusetts so I visit New England once a year.

 

It goes without saying that East Anglia is an enormously important region in the context of American history. The region where I grew up was the source of most of the immigrants for the puritan great migration of the 17th century. Winthrop came from a village called Groton to the south of me. To the north a certain Thomas Paine grew up in a village called Thetford, later he was to have a massive impact on world history and die in obscurity.The majority of the housing stock in new England has its roots in Dutch and English styles. The houses and meeting halls when they were first built were identical to those found in East Anglia (see Higham meeting house (http://libraries.mit.edu/rvc/kidder/photos/MA41.html) for one of the last surviving examples). The salt box style for instance was invented in Kent and East Anglia, it isn't a native architectural style. East Anglia in turn was heavily influenced by the Dutch due to cultural interchange from the wool trade so a lot of the features you see in New England and East Anglian houses have Dutch influences, notably the dutch gables you see everywhere in New England. The fact New England houses use so much wood isn't surprising when you look at East Anglian houses and see that most of them have timber frames. The settlement patterns of New England settlements are also very similar to East Anglian settlements as they are often clustered around a village green. In the past this was primarily used as common land for animals but in the nineteenth century they became the village centrepiece. Big changes came in English and American architecture when the classical style was brought to Britain by Inigo Jones in the 16th and 17th centuries. This revolutionised vernacular architecture and classical form and symmetry became all important. In America you see this most prominantly in the federal style of architecture. In Britain the many houses and commercial buildings were given classical fa cedes (a lot of them have now been stripped off to reveal the Tudor fronting) Today there are still many continuities between East Anglian and new England building styles but also many divergences which have occurred over the passage of time as new trends in architecture have taken hold. The churches in New England I find the most interesting as they are all based on the designs that Sir Christopher Wren and Gibbs produced in the 17th century. There are similar churches that were built by Wren all over post-great fire London and the style spread like wildfire in America.

 

If you are interested in East Anglia, here are some of the local towns to me where I grew up.

 

Lavenham

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavenham

 

This was a boom town during the medieval wool trade, the trade collapsed and it became a backwater but it was well preserved.

 

Cavendish

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavendish,_Suffolk

 

This is the village I grew up in

 

Clarke

 

http://www.clare-uk.com/photos/centre.html

 

My local town, again it was a Wool trade boom town that fell on hard times. Used to be an important regional centre.

 

Long Melford

 

http://www.longmelford.co.uk/

 

This is a medieval strip development along what was historically a very important road. It is now famous for antiques, although now the dollar is so weak business is not good.

^Thanks a lot.

 

The salt box style for instance was invented in Kent and East Anglia, it isn't a native architectural style. East Anglia in turn was heavily influenced by the Dutch due to cultural interchange from the wool trade so a lot of the features you see in New England and East Anglian houses have Dutch influences, notably the dutch gables you see everywhere in New England.

 

This was what I was most curious about, the origin of the gables, that unique slope of the roof.

^Thanks a lot.

 

The salt box style for instance was invented in Kent and East Anglia, it isn't a native architectural style. East Anglia in turn was heavily influenced by the Dutch due to cultural interchange from the wool trade so a lot of the features you see in New England and East Anglian houses have Dutch influences, notably the dutch gables you see everywhere in New England.

 

This was what I was most curious about, the origin of the gables, that unique slope of the roof.

 

I think the roof you are reffering to is a Gambrel Roof which is quite common in a lot of English architecture. This was an idea we nicked off the Flemish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemish_people (present day belgium), so its not a Dutch feature as such. You find it as a feature in the Dutch revival style but it wouldn't have been used in the New Netherland colony. Again these types of features were very common in East Anglia because of the wool trade and substancial cross cultural communication with the Low Counties where a lot of these styles originated. A good example of this would be the Pilgrim Fathers who moved to the Low Countries before voyaging to America on the Mayflower.

I think Ina "Barefoot Contessa" Garten went to that mill once. I love her.

awesome. thanks so much for catching this thread humphrey and filling in the background.

 

a little follow-up: if you want more us/english history i picked up an interesting pamphlet at the british tourism office in ny before i went to london. it's a map of sites around england with ties to us history. good for planning a visit. here is the website:

 

www.beginyouradventure.co.uk

 

btw -- thomas paine died and was buried in nyc, but was soon dug up by british radicals and his remains returned to england. no one knows what happened after that or if or where he was eventually buried over there.

 

Interesting pictures and time of year to visit the Hamptons.

Great pictures!  mrnyc, I think you picked the best time of year to visit...before the human pollution fouls the beaches.

Thanks, Humphrey, and great shots, MrNYC!

^Humphrey (interesting insight) stole my thunder: very New England-sparse frame architecture.  Ditto: main street has the NE village feel.

I think Ina "Barefoot Contessa" Garten went to that mill once. I love her.

 

ah but can you be sure? there are three historic windmills in east hampton alone (i only showed two of them) and probably about a dozen all together around the hamptons. since you're a fan hang on for reruns -- there's a detective story for ya!  :police: