One of the main focuses of the Parrish Art Museum is to bring people together through the experience of artists and how the public experiences their work. Their collections serve as the core of how the museum educates and creates a cultural experience for its visitors. The Parrish Art Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
An historic grist mill at 41 Old Mill Road has been turned into the Water Mill Museum. The mill was built in 1644 and the village is named after this mill. The mill building was originally on the north side if the road and was moved to the opposite side of the road in the eighteenth century. Old Mill Road runs along the top of the earthen mill dam; the mill pond is on the north side of the road. The Water Mill is one of the oldest surviving mills on Long Island. The Water Mill building was listed in the New York and National Registers of Historic Places in 1983. The museum is open from late May to late October from Thursdays through Sundays, featuring a restored, working mill, exhibits on local industries and the Civil War, and displays of members' artwork.
The windmill decorating the triangular grassy park at the intersection of Halsey Lane with Montauk Highway is known as the Windmill at Water Mill. The windmill was built in 1800 in North Haven for grinding grain and was moved to this location in 1813 by a team of oxen after the mill was sold. It was used as a gristmill until 1887. An inscription was found in 1977 inside on stairs that read "Began to Grinde Aug. 1 1800." It is a smock mill, a type of windmill with six or eight sloping sides, topped by a cap or roof that rotates to bring the sails into the wind (named for its resemblance to smocks worn by early farmers). The Windmill at Water Mill was listed in the New York Register in 1980 and the National Register in 1978. It is the only remaining windmill on Long Island whose cap is rotated by an external tailpole.
Rosemary Lodge is a two-and-a-half story wood frame Shingle style house that was built in 1884 with a 1904 rear addition. The house also is known as the Reverend Henry Turbell Rose House, for the original owner who completed much of the building himself. Early English and Craftsman influences are seen in the interior woodwork completed over years by Rose. The building was moved here in 1985 from its original location around 0.4 miles to the north, at the southeast corner of Rosehill Road and Montauk Highway (Rt. 27). Rosemary Lodge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 as a "museum quality" example of Shingle style architecture, characterized by asymmetrical massing and an irregular outline. The house is a private residence.
The Thomas Strong House was built around 1695 and was expanded in the early nineteenth century and once again in 1885. The house was the residence of the Strong family for eight generations and continuously occupied by descendants of Thomas Strong, a carpenter. The L-shaped wood frame dwelling is one-and-a-half stories tall, covered with cedar shingles and topped with a gable roof. The last resident farmer in the family was Charles W. Strong, who died in 1942; his great-grandson, John L. Nealon, inherited the long-neglected house in 1975 and spent years restoring the building, which became his home. The Thomas Strong House has been listed on the National Register since 2004.
It may not be known to many people by name, but the seaside home of Kilkare is one of the most iconic residences in the Hamptons. Perched on a dune just a short walk from the Atlantic Ocean, the home is considered to be the quintessential Hamptons beach house. The home was built in 1877 for Walter and Camilla Edwards and is part of the Georgica Settlement, which was founded by a group of academics, mostly from Yale. The home was featured in the film The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Completed in 1897 for the president of the Consolidated Coal company, this historic mansion is best-known for a documentary that showed the home's decline and its connection to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In recent years, the estate was restored by Ben Bradlee, executive editor of the Washington Post, and his wife, journalist Sally Quinn. In 1971, news broke that the police raided this once-grand home on Long Island and found it in a state of decay. The home was full of cats and raccoons and belonged to two women known as Big Edie and Little Edie Beale who were close relations of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. That relatives of one of the wealthiest women in the country were living in squalor made headlines and eventually led to a documentary that became a classic in the genre. Following the death of Big Edie, the estate was sold to Ben Bradlee, executive editor of the Washington Post, and his wife, journalist Sally Quinn.
This was the home of artists Thomas Moran until his death in 1926. Moran was one of the most acclaimed landscape painters of the nineteenth century. An integral part of the Hudson River School, Moran's work often featured the Rocky Mountains. In 1885, Moran and his wife, Mary Nimmo Moran, also a celebrated printmaker, moved into their home in East Montauk. Moran designed the quirky home himself, using mostly recycled construction materials. The home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.
Mulford Farm was established in the late 1600s by Captain Josiah Hobart. A few years later, after Hobart's death, the farm passed to Samuel Mulford. Remarkably, the property remained in the Mulford family until the mid-twentieth century, with virtually no changes made to the home and barn, which was built in 1721. The farm is part of the East Hampton Village District and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the farm is operated as a living museum by the East Hampton Historical Society. Rachel's Garden, a recreated 18th-century dooryard garden, is on the grounds, which are open to the public.
Clinton Academy was constructed in 1784 and modified in 1887 with a rear addition called the village hall. The architect and builder of the the three-story building with a gambrel roof and cupola are are not known. Clinton Academy was the first academy in New York to be named for the first governor of New York State, George Clinton; the original name was East Hampton Academy. The academy began as a pre-college school for boys and was incorporated by the Regents of the University of the State of New York on November 1st 1787 as one of the two first academies in New York State (the other was Erasmus Hall in Flatbush/ Brooklyn). There were 90 pupils by 1786. The academy continued until 1868. The building's owners then rented the upper floor to private tutors while the ground floor room was used for town meetings. A town library and a newspaper occupied parts of the building in the late 1890s to 1912. The structure was restored in 1921 and leased to the newly-formed East Hampton Historical Society for 99 years. The society's offices are in the building, as well as art and local history museum exhibits, a Visitor Center, and a gift shop. A gate to the left of the front porch leads to a flower garden, open to the public; the Mimi Meehan Native Plant Garden is maintained by the Garden Club of East Hampton. Clinton Academy is one of dozens of buildings within the East Hampton Village Historic Distirct, one of eight National Register historic districts in the village.
Hook Windmill, on a grassy area between the intersection of N. Main Street and Pantigo Road, was built in 1806 by Nathaniel Dominy V and was used up to 1908. Hook Windmill was the last wind-powered gristmill built in East Hampton, and stands in its original location near the north end of Main Street. The Village of East Hampton bought the windmill in 1922 and restored it in 1939. Hook Windmill was listed in the National Register in 1978 and is part of the North Main Street Historic District. Hook Windmill is open briefly in the summertime for tours; it was closed in 2020 due to the pandemic.
The East Hampton Historical Farm Museum has been in operation since 2014 and includes exhibits and experiences that share the history of farm life as it was in the 1880s through 1930s within this region. The museum includes an eighteenth-century farmhouse that was moved to the property from Amagansett by the new owners, the Lester family, in the winter of 1875-1876. The farmhouse is a saltbox-style building dating to 1725, built by Captain Jonathan Barnes. The farmhouse and its barn have been restored. The museum sits upon three acres of what used to be common ground for the Village of East Hampton, where eighteenth-century settlers grazed sheep and cattle. The museum re-opened for the season in late May 2021 with a yard sale event featuring art, antiques, and live music.
The Stephen Sherrill House is set back from the road on a one-acre lot that used to be part of a 19-acre farm; the main facade of the house faces south; the west side faces the road. The farmhouse was constructed in 1857 using some elements from an earlier house from around 1802. The two-story wood frame house with a front gable roof and side entrance is late Greek Revival style and was added to the National Register in 1996. The house represents the changing architectural tastes of the area's prosperous farmers. One other building and one structure on the property are contributing to the National Register significance. A kitchen wing was removed from the farmhouse in 1927 and moved to north of the house. A wind-pump tower at the north edge of the lot dates to the early twentieth century Sherrill Dairy, established on the family farm by A.E. Sherrill in 1910. The Sherrill family still owned the farmhouse until it was sold to private buyers in 2015.
This Tour is a Driving or Biking Tour.
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A baker's dozen of historical and art museums, 19th-century wind mills, historic mansions and farmhouses, and a former academy. This is one of a series of historical driving tours along the S. shore of Long Island, from west to east.
