Our Hamptons

In 1908, four prominent families from Cincinnati, Ohio purchased 1000 acres in northern Amagansett and founded the Devon Colony. William Cooper Procter (Procter and Gamble) Richmond Levering (Lever Bros) Joseph Rawn and William Rowe discovered the area during a hunting trip. (As an interesting aside, the subject of our episode 35, Frank Wiborg and The Dunes, was also from Cincinnati). 90 feet above sea level, with Gardiners Bay to the north and the ocean to the south, grand stucco houses, along with some smaller residences, were built in and around Oceanview Lane, between Abrahams Landing and Cranberry Hole Roads. The colony also founded the Devon Yacht Club, still going strong 116 years later. Surrounded by large swaths of preserved land, this area has not been as impacted by extensive development, and retained much of its original appeal.

Esperanza and Irwin welcome Bess Rattray, who needs no introduction. The Rattray family has owned and published The East Hampton Star for generations, and Bess' own column, the beloved Shipwrecked Rose, shows a quirkier side of the East End, often autobiographical. Bess tells us what growing up in the family business was like, particularly a newspaper, where the story lines often involved your friends and neighbors in a small town. Bess tells us of the Anchor Society, and their mission to bring a General Store to East Hampton, to meet the every day needs of the community.

Esperanza and Irwin leave their usual comfort zone and head into more uncharted territory. Calverton has the last, large swath of Long Island grassland, and has been protected to a degree. If you visit the area, there doesn't seem to be much development or planning, although proposals exist. It's home to an enormous FedEx distribution center, a large recycling business, along with tiny farmhouses and farms. We''ll tie in the Calverton Executive Airport, the Grumman Corporation's impact on LI, and its Memorial Park on 10 adjacent acres.

Esperanza and Irwin welcome Geoff Gehman, the author of The Kingdom Of The Kid: Growing Up In The Long Lost Hamptons. Geoff spent 1967 through 1972 in Wainscott as a young boy coming of age. The memories we all have in those formative years tends to be indelible, so much so that it inspired the book. Geoff regales us here with many of those stories that serves right into the mission of Our Hamptons; the rich sense of place that never seems to cease pulling at our heartstrings.

Esperanza and Irwin were pleasantly surprised by the number of one room Schoolhouses that still exist. Some have been repurposed into community centers, others as private residences, even museums. Join us for this historical and geographical tour. We explore schoolhouses in Quogue, Hampton Bays, Noyac, North Haven, Sag Harbor, East Hampton, Amagansett. We delve a bit deeper within Sagaponack, which still is a schoolhouse, and especially Wainscott, where Esperanza shares her own experience as a parent of children in the school.

Esperanza and Irwin welcome Canio's of Sag Harbor proprietors Maryann Calendrille and Kathryn Szoka. Canio's has had a long and storied history in Sag Harbor. In 1980, Canio Pavone fulfilled his dream of owning a bookstore, when riding past the Upper Main Street storefront with a For Rent sign on the door in a very different, and long gone Sag Harbor. It quickly became a source of community, and has stayed that way since Maryann and Kathryn bought it in 1999, putting their unique stamp on the store, while maintaining many Canio traditions. We talk of all of that and more, including the unfortunate news of this Sag Harbor institution losing it's lease at the end of September 2024. Canio's hopes to resurface elsewhere, and Maryann and Kathryn will reinvent Canio's in the near term. A poignant Our Hamptons podcast.

Esperanza and Irwin welcome Dr. Susan Van Scoy, Professor at St Joseph's University and author of The Big Duck and eastern Long Island's Duck Farming Industry. Susan describes the rich history and sheer dominance during duck farming's heyday in the 1950's. 75% of all ducks served in restaurants across the country came from Long Island. But as suburbanization pushed eastward, rising land values, along with stricter government regulations made farming ducks untenable. A fascinating look at on often overlooked part of the East End's history.

Esperanza and Irwin look back at a true game changer on the East End. Before 1974, to get to eastern Long Island, you took the Long Island Rail Road, or drove. But the Jitney's original intent far more humble than shuttling people from NYC. In 1974 during the height of the Gas Crisis, founder Jim Davidson thought a series of small vans shuttling people between Southampton and Montauk was a niche to fill. Organically, as Jim's customers requested being taken back and forth to NY, the original business model changed, dramatically. So hop on, and enjoy a ride with us spanning 50 Years, and that metaphorically symbolizes the changes on the East End.

Esperanza and Irwin welcome Susan Horowitz, of Hamptons

20th Century Modern. Susan formulates advocacy efforts to both raise awareness and influence actual preservation efforts by viewing modernism as a continuum of the architectural history of eastern Long Island. While Long Island modern architectural history is documented by writers such as Paul Goldberger, Alastair Gordon + Caroline Rob Zaleski, Long Island continues to face crucial need to focus on the legacy of the modern architects and their architecture, before they are forgotten and their work is demolished. While much has already been lost, part of Hamptons 20th Century Modern's mission is to encourage owners of these homes to protect their futures, and new buyers to consider them as valuable historic homes. We also discuss how eastern Long Island relates to other US areas of successful modernism preservation across the country; New Canaan, Palm Springs and Cape Cod. Watch for Hamptons 20th Century Modern's upcoming House Tour, scheduled for August 11 and 12.

Esperanza and Irwin discuss Freetown, East Hampton. Following the passage of the Gradual Emancipation Act of 1799 in New York State, John Lyon Gardiner and other wealthy local slave-owners settled newly freed slaves in Freetown. Some of these households bore the last names of their former owners in subsequent census records. Rufus Right, Cyrus Hedges, William Gardiner, and Luce Gardiner were early African American residents of Freetown. In 1879, a New York City real estate developer, Arthur W. Benson (Bensonhurst, Brooklyn), acquired 10,000 acres in Montauk, where a group of  Montaukett  people maintained a small community. Benson and local officials relocated the Montaukett households to Freetown, offering them cash and deeds to newly subdivided lots. Many direct connections to Freetown's past survive today. Archival records about the community of Freetown are preserved in East Hampton Library's extensive Long Island Collection. Moreover, a number buildings and sites survive. For example, the George and Sara Fowler House, and Saint Matthews Chapel.