A big contributor to the preservation of open space on eastern Long Island during the critical early boom years of luxury development—1967 to 1999—was the Suffolk County, N.Y., parks department. It was no coincidence that this happened then: the parks authority had only recently been created. It is a reflection of the era that wasContinue reading “When Suffolk County Got Its Foothold on Open Space”
Category Archives: Hamptons Land
An Excise Tax That Fortifies Long-Island Wine
Some milestone anniversaries on the East End of Long Island have been easy to overlook but not so its start as a wine region. Fifty years ago, as the “Hamptons” south fork of the island was consumed with some of its earliest development battles, the north fork saw the planting of its first commercial vineyardContinue reading “An Excise Tax That Fortifies Long-Island Wine”
Will Half a Billion Buy a B.A. in the Hamptons?
Word this week of a $500 million gift to Stony Brook University (a State University of New York branch on Long Island) can’t help but have East End residents wondering: Will this bring sustained academic life to town? For all its riches, the Hamptons does not have higher ed. The main Stony Brook campus isContinue reading “Will Half a Billion Buy a B.A. in the Hamptons?”
Summer Swells, Circa Hamptons 1957
The conceit of a series of posts here about the Hamptons is that, after a first rush of summer “colonies” that culminated in the Roaring Twenties, the East End of Long Island went through sleepy decades until a new wave of city money began to stir development again in the late 1960s. That is generallyContinue reading “Summer Swells, Circa Hamptons 1957”
Why Only a Few Fly to the Hamptons
If in 2023 we are commemorating notable anniversaries in the preservation of Long Island’s East End—the 40th of the Peconic Land Trust and the 30th of Southampton Town’s wetlands building restrictions—it may be time to look farther back, 75 years, to another pivotal sequence of events. These speak to why there is no commercial jetportContinue reading “Why Only a Few Fly to the Hamptons”
A Tale of Montauk’s Camp Hero
This personalized recollection from the retired Hamptons publisher Dan Rattiner in the current issue of his old magazine, Dan’s Papers, sets the historical scene for one of eastern Long Island’s most unusual preserves: Camp Hero near Montauk Point. Now an ocean-facing state park on nearly 280 acres, it was a secretive military base during theContinue reading “A Tale of Montauk’s Camp Hero”
Hamptons Hint: Bigger Is No Longer Better
Even in places that like to think they “live and let live,” it’s possible to get too much in other people’s faces. That’s basically where we are on the East End of Long Island, where the McMansion binge is leading to many new homes being built to the legal limits of size and footprint, oftenContinue reading “Hamptons Hint: Bigger Is No Longer Better”
Across the Peconic, It’s Not Just a Wine Story
Most of my reporting on the recent history of land preservation on the East End of Long Island has dealt with the South Fork, or “The Hamptons.” But on the other side of Peconic Bay, similar if somewhat later stories could be told. This item from Patch spotlights one man’s efforts in New Suffolk thatContinue reading “Across the Peconic, It’s Not Just a Wine Story”
When Pine Barrens Were Cleared for Walmart
I’m reminded it’s been 25 years this summer since this article in the New York Times caught the inception of a “regional shopping center” on the Long Island Expressway approach to the Hamptons. The center, such as it is, finally is coming together, based on my drive-by tour a few months ago. A huge WalmartContinue reading “When Pine Barrens Were Cleared for Walmart”
On the Trail of Hamptons Preservation
The year 2022 is triggering public anniversary memories on the East End of Long Island, some of which go back 50 years to significant developments that changed Suffolk County such as the abrupt completion of the Long Island Expressway and the birth of the resource-preservationist outfit known back then as the Group for America’s SouthContinue reading “On the Trail of Hamptons Preservation”
Tim W. Ferguson 