The history of the Parrish Art Museum dates back to the Victorian Era with the life of Samuel Longstreth Parrish. Parrish was born in 1849, and belonged to a family of well-known Quakers in Philadelphia. He was a man of the arts. During his years at Harvard, he found his passion and love for art. In his 40s, he began to collect art as more than just a hobby. When Parrish made plans to build a museum, he decided he would do so in Southampton, the location of his family home. Near the turn of the century, Parrish purchased land in Southampton for the purpose of building&nbsp;a museum. His collection had grown vastly, and the collections focus was in classical Greek and Roman sculpture. This collection would serve as the founding collection of the museum.&nbsp;The first museum&nbsp;was constructed in 1897 as the Art Museum of Southampton. This original building saw additions over a period of more than forty years. These additions included: additional wings, an arboretum, and a beautiful landscape. Almost a decade after Parrish's death in 1932, the Village of Southampton&nbsp;received the museum, estate, and collection as a gift.In 2012, the new Parrish Art Museum building was opened after almost thirty years of planning. The original building&nbsp;had served the area for decades, but in the 1980s it could not longer support of the growing museum. Today, the new building is a whopping 34,400 square-feet, and still houses Parrish's founding collection.

Official Website of the Parrish Art Museum 

Website

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.

Parrish Art Museum 

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.

South Shore Long Island Historical Driving Tour, Water Mill to Wainscott to East Hampton

The history of the Parrish Art Museum dates back to the Victorian Era with the life of Samuel Longstreth Parrish. Parrish was born in 1849, and belonged to a family of well-known Quakers in Philadelphia. He was a man of the arts. During his years at Harvard, he found his passion and love for art. In his 40s, he began to collect art as more than just a hobby. When Parrish made plans to build a museum, he decided he would do so in Southampton, the location of his family home. Near the turn of the century, Parrish purchased land in Southampton for the purpose of building&nbsp;a museum. His collection had grown vastly, and the collections focus was in classical Greek and Roman sculpture. This collection would serve as the founding collection of the museum.&nbsp;The first museum&nbsp;was constructed in 1897 as the Art Museum of Southampton. This original building saw additions over a period of more than forty years. These additions included: additional wings, an arboretum, and a beautiful landscape. Almost a decade after Parrish's death in 1932, the Village of Southampton&nbsp;received the museum, estate, and collection as a gift.In 2012, the new Parrish Art Museum building was opened after almost thirty years of planning. The original building&nbsp;had served the area for decades, but in the 1980s it could not longer support of the growing museum. Today, the new building is a whopping 34,400 square-feet, and still houses Parrish's founding collection.

Edward Howell constructed the dam and mill at Mecoxe in 1644 in exchange for 40 acres of land from the town of Southampton. Settlers of the nearby village of East Hampton were allowed to bring their grain to be ground at the mill in exchange for regulating the water level in Mecox Bay. A settlement devloped near the mill and the name was changed to Water Mill. Howell sold the mill and property to William Ludlum in 1653. A weaver named Elias Petty purchased the mill in 1748 and converted the machinery to spin yarn and weave and full cloth. The mill was converted again in the early nineteenth century by Jesse Hedges and John White to manufacture paper. The mill continued to be used for papermaking by the Benedict family from 1825 to the early twentieth century. The mill went through three more functions - ice storage, a boys' club, and a shop - before being purchased from the Benedicts in 1942 by the Ladies Auxiliary of Water Mill. After stabilizing and repairing the building, they opened the museum in 1969. During the summer months, the auxiliary operated the mill to grind grain into flour.There are two building sections in the mill building. The square, two-story, hipped-roof main section with a full basement and an interior chimney on the west side lies close to the road. A one-story, shed-roof wing to the east of the main block has the water wheel and mill race on the east side. The mill race runs southward from the millpond under the road to the east side of the mill, and then empties into Mill Creek. An undershot wooden water wheel with a diameter of 12 feet and a stone support wall were replaced in the 1970s. Attached to the rear (south) of the main block are a two-and-a half story tower and a glass-walled one-story porch from the 1930s. The main entrance to the mill was moved in the 1930s to enter the east addition instead of the main block. There is a loft opening with a wooden door and hoist in the center of the front facade on the second story.The heavy mortise-and-tenon wood frame of the main block is visible inside on all levels, plus the wood planking that the exterior shingles attach to. The tower was being used for storage when the building was documented for the National Register in 1983. While most of the milling apparatus has been removed, there are still heavy wood frame supports, large grinding stones, and an eighteenth-century tub wheel.The Water Mill Museum is still run by the auxiliary and re-opened for the summer on May 27th 2021, after being closed in 2020 due to the pandemic. It closes for the season on October 27th 2021.

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.

Water Mill Museum

The Windmill at Water Mill originally stood in North Haven, a peninsula north of Sag Harbor formerly known as Hog Neck. In 1799, James Mitchel petitioned the Southampton Trustees for permission to build a mill and was approved. The mill was owned by Joshua Howell, a miller from Sag Harbor, by 1813 or 1814 when it was sold to James Corwith for $750. The mill was dismantled and moved to Water Mill where it was erected on what was then common land, to replace a mill that had been destroyed in a storm near the end of 1811. A woodworker from Bridgehampton named Sullivan Cook did 38.5 days of work for Corwith between September and November 1813, according to Cook's account book; this was presumably work on the mill in its new location. Corwith had purchased 9 acres in Water Mill north of the village commons in 1810 and married Harmenia Goodale, the daughter of a local farmer, in September 1813. Corwith did not buy the land where the mill stood until 1860, when he paid the village $20. Since the water-powered mill in the village switched from grinding grain to manufacturing cloth by 1813, Corwith's windmill would have been the only local grist mill. The windmill was used for grinding grain - mainly corn and also wheat and rye - into grist for animal feed, and also bolted flour for farmers. Corwith listed his occupation as miller in the 1850 census, but he may have retired from milling by 1860, when the 78-year-old's occupation was farming. At least two of the five sons of James Corwith - Caleb H. and Samuel J. - helped their father in the mill. James Corwith died at age 82 in July 1863; there was no will, but four of his sons turned over their interest in his farm and mill to their brother, Samuel, in 1864.In 1887, the windmill was blocked from the prevailing breezes by construction of a large mansion facing Mecox Bay, and milling stopped. The structure, with most of the 1880s machinery intact, was not used for decades afterwards. The neighboring property owners of the large mansion - wealthy New York men - bought the windmill as decoration for their estate. The windmill was purchased by the Order of St. Dominic in 1931 after going through several owners and deeded to the Water Mill Village Improvement Association in 1934. The exterior was maintained as part of a public park beginning in the mid-1930s. A terrible hurricane in 1938 damaged the windmill and repairs were made, including a new windshaft made by John Bennett, a Southampton carpenter. After another hurricane in 1954, some interior tie rods and wooden bracing were added; wooden frames of at least two of the sails were replaced in the late 1950s. The arms snapped off during a violent storm in 1984 and were later restored.The Windmill at Water Mill was documented in 1975 as part of the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER). The works had deteriorated from dry rot. The original machinery in 1800 would have included only one pair of millstones in the center of the mill, with an upright shaft engaging the brake wheel; this type of direct gearing with a tail pole resembled smock mills that had been built in Europe since 1650. With the tail pole rotating the arms into the wind, the miller could use the mill almost any day of the year. The oldest known smock mill built in America was constructed in 1764 on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts and survives to this day, after being restored by the Nantucket Historical Association in the 1930s. By the 1880s, the Windmill at Water Mill had two pairs of grinding stones and intermediate gearing.The owner of the Windmill at Water Mill in 1975 was still the Water Mill Village Improvement Association Inc. A classic car show was held annually in recent years in September on the grassy lawn surrounding the windmill.

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.

Windmill at Water Mill

Reverend Henry Turbell ("H.T.") Rose enjoyed visiting his Uncle Henry's farm in Water Mill in the summers from his home in Lowell, Massachusetts and asked permission to build a cottage on the property. Henry agreed as long as the building did not block his ocean view, and sold his nephew a parcel for $50 in 1884. H.T. purchased plans for the house from architect Frederick W. Stickney of Lowell for $25 and began gathering building materials. Stickney designed just the shell of Rosemary Lodge, which was basically a rectangular block covered by a steep gabled roof. The shell of the house was built from July to August of 1884 but H.T. worked on finishing the wood-shingled mansion in the summers for years. He added a new wing on the north side of the block in 1904, containing a kitchen and informal dining room plus two more entrances to the east and to a terrace and lawns on the west. The second floor can be reached from a staircase in the connection of the main block to the north wing. The building is complex, with multiple rooflines and projections.The main entrance leads to a two-story room called the "living hall" with a large fireplace surrounded by wood paneling. A stairway along the west wall of the room leads to a balcony on the north at a mezzanine level. A short staircase from the east end of the balcony leads to the second story and a master and second bedrooms (the "Green Room" and "White Room," respectively). The living hall's wood paneling and staircases feature carved inscriptions and floral motifs created by Rose and styled after the English Tudor period. A doorway east of the fireplace accesses a parlor with wood paneling and a corner fireplace surrounded by a molded wooden cornice on turned columns. The dining room to the west of the hall features an inglenook with built-in seating and wood-paneled walls and ceilings inscribed with quotations from Shakespeare. Each ground=floor room is paneled in a different type of wood: ash, cherry, oak, and sycamore. Upstairs rooms were plastered and papered. There are many built-in seats and shelves created by Rose throughout the house, in the period's Craftsman and Mission styles. This man clearly enjoyed working with wood; he fashioned many of the wooden elements in his workshop in Lowell during the fall, winter, and spring months and brought them to Water Mill in the summers.The increasing commercialization of Montauk Highway near the original location of Rosemary Lodge prompted its movement further south along Road Hill Road in 1985, to an area that replicated the rural, open feel of the original surroundings. A small 19th-century stable was left at the original property when the house was relocated. The house faced north originally toward Montauk Highway. After the move, the house faces south. Modern additions include a porch and dormer on the west side of the north wing, an in-ground swimming pool, and some replacement casement windows. Rosemary Lodge was owned by R.A. Cordingly and E.A. King by 1999 on slightly under one acre. The owners have many of Rose's notes on the house.

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.

Rosemary Lodge

John Strong emigrated from Taunton, England to America in 1630 at age 25, arriving to Nantucket on the ship "Mary and John." One of his eighteen children was named Thomas Strong (I) and was born in the 1630s; this Thomas Strong's son, Thomas Strong (II), was a carpenter and moved from Northampton, Massachusetts to Wainscott around 1690 and built the house himself; family history has the circa 1695 building being a shop, too, in its early years. One of Thomas (II)'s sons was named Thomas (III) (born 1686) and also worked as a carpenter. Thomas (III) married Mary Miller Osborn (b. 1694) and had at least four children: George (b. 1723), John (b. 1726 - died 1808), and twins Mary and Abigail (b. 1732). Thomas (III) died in 1772, followed by his wife, Mary in 1779; their son, John, lived in Wainscot and fought in the American Revolution. John married Martha Talmadge (b. 1729 - d. 1811) in 1753 and the couple had four children, including John (b. 1756 - d. 1828). The younger John was a shoemaker and also fought in the Revolutionary War; the younger John married twice and had many children, including Abner (b. 1800 - d. 1885), a farmer and carpenter.Charles W. Strong (b. 1870) was the son of Samuel Henry Strong (b. 1834 - d. 1900), a farmer and commission merchant, and the grandson of Abner Strong. Charles W. married Fanny Hildreth and occupied the Thomas Strong House; their daughter, Bessie H. (b. 1895), married Arthur Hallock of Bridgehampton in 1916. Charles W. worked as a truant officer in the 1930s as well as farming his family land in Wainscot. Charles W.'s daughter, Bessie Hallock, owned the house until her death in 1969. Bessie and Arthur Hallock had two children: a daughter, Mary Katherine Hallock (b. 1917) and a son, John L. Hallock (b. 1918). Mary Katherine married John J. Nealon; her brother, John, died during World War II when his Air Force bomber was shot down in 1943 over Austria. Bessie Hallock let the vegetation between the house and the main road grow, obscuring the view of the farmhouse from the road. John Nealon, the great-grandson of Charles W. and the son of Mary Katherine, inherited the farmhouse in 1975 and came to live in the house in 1984. Mr. Nealon rented the farmhouse out in the summers and worked as an accountant in Bridgehampton by 2005; he added a new kitchen to the north side of the house.By the time the last addition was completed (1885), the Thomas Strong House had five rooms on the first floor and three rooms plus a bathroom on the second floor. The historic core of the farmhouse was 39 feet long and 25 feet wide, with a center chimney and no cellar, resting on a stone foundation. An early 19th-century addition to the rear of the house added a space 23 by 15 feet with a large chimney and a cellar accessible by an exterior bulkhead entrance. The 1885 construction added rooms to the second floor, including one that projects over the main entrance; Samuel Henry Strong added the rooms to take advantage of the popularity for city folks to "summer" as boarders in eastern Long Island.

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.

Thomas Strong House

Anyone who has ever looked at photographs of the Hamptons has likely seen Kilkare. The iconic, three-story cottage is one of the most photographed homes in the Hamptons and was used in the filming of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in 1994. Perched alone on a dune overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, the shingled, three-story cottage appears emblematic of the community's easy charm. The home was built in 1877 for Walter and Camilla Edwards. The couple commissioned a shipbuilder to construct the home and reportedly gave him no clear plans or instructions for the home's design. The couple gave the builder a few dimensions and asked only that it be built extremely strong, then set off on a trip to Europe. The home's interior, apparently little changed since the late 1800s, still reportedly bears the evidence of having been built by a shipbuilder. Nearly every room features built-in furniture, a curious feature that would have been well-known among those who spent their lives among ships. The Edwards named their home Kilkare, a name which sounds a bit like an Irish village, but apparently comes from the phrase "kill care." Kilkare was part of a community that came to be known as the Georgica Settlement. The isolated community was founded in the late 1800s by a group of roughly 20 academics, most of whom were New Englanders and associated with Yale, who wanted a private retreat to study and write. Because of its rarefied academic connections, the Settlement, as it came to be known, developed a reputation for exclusivity. There are fewer than 40 homes in the settlement, many of which have been in the same family for generations. Kilkare remained in the Edwards family until well into the twentieth century. In the 1970s, the home was purchased by New York attorney Michael Kennedy and his wife Eleanora. The home sold in 2020, reportedly for about $27 million.

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.

Kilkare

In 1971, Jacqueline Onassis was one of the wealthiest and most famous women in the world. She was the widow of President John Kennedy and in 1968, she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. She also frequently spent her summers in the Hamptons. So when news broke that year that police had raided a decrepit mansion that smelled of cat urine and had raccoons living in it, the world was shocked to find that the home's inhabitants were Big Edie and Little Edie Beale--a mother and daughter who were cousins of the former First Lady. Their famous relative vacationed just a short distance away. This historic home, known as Grey Gardens, is a fourteen-room mansion that was completed in 1897. The property was originally purchased by Stanhope Phillips, but a lengthy legal battle ensued over the property's title and Phillips died before a home could be built. Another well-heeled couple, Robert Hill, president of Consolidated Coal, and his wife, Anna, purchased the land and built a mansion that Anna named Grey Gardens. In 1924, Phelan Beale, an influential New York attorney, bought the estate for his wife, Edith Bouvier Beale. Edith was the sister of "Black Jack" Bouvier, the father of Jacqueline Kennedy and Lee Radziwill. Phelan and Edith had three children, including Edith, and the mother and daughter came to be known as Big Edie and Little Edie. Over time, Big Edie and the children came to spend more and more time at Grey Gardens, leaving Phelan alone in the city to manage his law firm as it struggled financially during the Great Depression. The couple eventually divorced, with Big Edie remaining in Grey Gardens. Little Edie, meanwhile, had aspirations of becoming an actress but her dreams never materialized. Her father became increasingly frustrated at her inability to settle down and cut off her allowance. She and her mother lived at Grey Gardens on a relatively miserly allowance and a limited household staff. Eventually the family's trust became inadequate to maintain the large property, and the mother and daughter lived without heat or running water and sold heirlooms to pay for necessities. Because it faces the Atlantic, the home was continually battered by strong winds and sea air, which hastened its decline. In 1972, Lee Radziwill hired documentary filmmakers Albert and David Maysles to make a film on the Bouvier family. As part of their research, they interviewed Little Edie and although the originally planned film was never completed, the Maysles returned to film a documentary entirely about Big Edie and Little Edie and their unconventional life. The result, Grey Gardens, is now regarded as a classic of documentary filmmaking. In the years since its release, Grey Gardens has been adapted into a Broadway musical and a remake of the film, starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange, was made by HBO. The documentary revealed the Beales' circumstances to be far more alarming--and intriguing--than the original news stories. The women loved cats, and with no spaying or neutering, their home was overrun with dozens of cats, who often relieved themselves in the home. Raccoons made their way into the home as well and because the women had not paid their sanitation bill in years, mounds of trash piled up. Beyond their squalid living conditions, however, viewers were charmed by Little Edie's eccentric fashion sense, which included skirts worn as turbans. When Big Edie died in 1977, Little Edie agreed to sell the home. The new owners were Ben Bradlee, executive editor of the Washington Post, and his wife, journalist Sally Quinn, who restored the mansion to its former glory, as Little Edie had stipulated. Following Bradlee's death, Quinn sold the property for $15.5 million in 2017.

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.

Grey Gardens

Thomas Moran, who would become a celebrated painter in the United States, was born in England in 1837. While still a child, Moran's father moved his family to the United States and they settled outside of Philadelphia. As a teenager, Moran became apprenticed to an engraving firm. Eventually, Moran left the firm and went to work in the studio of his older brother, Edward, who was establishing himself as a marine painter. As a young man, Moran traveled to England to study the works of J.M.W. Turner. It was the beginning of a lifelong interest in Turner's work, and while Turner was an exemplar to a number of painters in the Hudson River School, but none so much as Moran. In 1871, Moran made a trip to Yellowstone in what would become a turning point in his life. Moran was funded in part by Scribner's, a new illustrated magazine, which had recently hired Moran. Moran traveled with the US Geological Survey and documented dozens of sights and kept highly detailed journals of the expedition. When the expedition was complete, Moran's illustrations captured the nation's imagination and were instrumental in the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872. He would later journey into the Grand Canyon, and his massive painting, Chasm of the Colorado, along with the equally large Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, became the first two paintings purchased by Congress to hang in the Capitol. Moran became a successful, nationally known painter following the Yellowstone and Grand Canyon expedition and paintings. In 1885, Moran designed and built a cottage on Main Street in East Hampton and was built largely of recycled construction materials. The two-story home has a quirky design, with the main room of the ground floor as Moran's studio. Much of Moran's works would be completed in the studio. The Moran home essentially served as the beginning of East Hampton as an artists' colony. The Morans were the first artists to make East Hampton their permanent summer home, and in the coming years, numerous artists would follow suit. Moran continued to live in the home until his death in 1926. The home, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966, underwent a significant restoration in 2017.

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.

Thomas Moran House 

One of the oldest surviving homesteads in the United States, Mulford Farm dates to approximately 1680 and is regarded as one of the country's most historically and architecturally significant English Colonial farmsteads. The house was built by Josiah Hobart, who served as High Sheriff in the first New York Royal Province government. Samuel Mulford purchased the property in 1712 following the death of Hobart.Mulford added a barn to the property in 1721. That structure is also highly regarded for its historical significance. An evaluation of the building in 1990 deemed it the second most important eighteenth-century barn in the state of New York. Few changes have been made to the property since 1750, making it an invaluable resource for historians because it provides an opportunity to study building methods and materials from the 1600s and 1700s.The farm remained in the Mulford family until 1949 when the East Hampton Historical Society acquired the property. In 1950, the historical society carried out a restoration of the exterior cladding, chimney, and interior fabric and restored the interior of the house with period furniture and decorative art. The society also added Rachel's Garden, a recreation of an eighteenth-century dooryard garden, which is named for Rachel Mulford, one of the home's earliest inhabitants. The garden features a number of plants that were used in the eighteenth century for food, dyeing, and medicines.The Mulford House was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) in 1981. Evidence of three distinct building episodes were found: the original house ca. 1680; demolition of the east end of the structure and construction of a lean-to on the northeast ca. 1720; and replacement of the east end of the lean-to with a two-story ca. 1750.Right next door to Mulford Farm is the Home Sweet Home Museum (home of the writer John Howard Payne) and Pantigo Windmill.

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.

Mulford Farm (East Hampton Historical Society)

Construction of Clinton Academy was overseen in 1784 by Reverend Samuel Buell, pastor of the East Hampton Presbyterian Church and a Yale graduate. Buell wrote in October 1784 of having to frequently answer questions from the group of teenaged boys doing some of the construction. Buell was among a group of locals who raised funds to build the school. The school was situated on a donated lot of one-quarter acre. There were plans to have the building finished and open the academy for classes in November 1784 but this was delayed until January 1785. The first instructors were Jabez Peck as master of the classical department and William Payne as master of English and writing and the first principal. Governor George Clinton, the academy's namesake, presented a bell to the school for its belfry and the school was renamed in his honor. Early advertising promoted the building as "spacious and elegant and perfectly calculated for the design."The school building and lot were valued at $2,000 in 1805. The contents (library and "apparatus") were worth about $400. The apparatus consisted of a telescope, microscope, air pump, small hand orrery (a mechanical model of the solar system), two globes, a compass and chain, and a quadrant and prism. Tuition in 1805 was $1.50 for reading and writing; $2.50 for English grammar and ciphering; $5 for mathematics and book-keeping; $5 for dead languages; $5 for logic, rhetoric and composition; $5 for moral philosophy; and $5 for French language. Teachers were paid from the students' tuition. Pupils found accommodations in the homes of locals for $1 per week; this went up to $1.50 by 1827. The winter term began in early November and the summer term in late April. Students were mainly from Long Island, but some were from the Caribbean, likely because of the frequent ship traffic between the locales. Students were required to pay for damage to furniture or walls or for breaking glass. No games, wrestling. or scuffling was allowed in the building. The school became co-educational at some point; the future wife of U.S. President Tyler, Nancy Symms, was a pupil at the academy.Locals called the former academy building by August 1919; this is when talk of restoring the building to its original appearance was reported in the local paper. The East Hampton Historical Society was just in the organizing stage then, and planned to use one of the second-floor rooms for exhibits and for the "edification and instruction of the public.". Local artists could have space in the building to display artwork. Architects J.C. Lawrence and J.G. Thorp drew up plans for the restoration, using the original building plans from 1786 as a guide. The architects were looking for photos or drawings from the public of Clinton Academy before the rear addition - called "Clinton Hall" - was constructed.The restored Clinton Academy building was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) in 1934. The flagstone front porch led to a central doorway that opened onto one large room on the ground floor with a brick hearth at either end; the Historical Society used this room as their meeting room. The second floor had a central hall and two rooms on the north and south ends, used by the 1930s as the Americana Museum. Some of the items on display in the museum in the summer of 1959 were a handmade cradle dating to 1793; the clock face, a weathervane, and the pulpit from the local Presbyterian Church, built in 1717; and a Revolutionary War uniform. An old carpenter shop was set up in the museum's attic. The East Hampton Historical Society kept Clinton Academy closed to visitors during the summer and fall of 1977 so a local anthropologist, Dr. Judith Treistman, could conserve deteriorating items in the museum's collection.

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.

Clinton Academy

The builder of Hook Windmill, local craftsman Nathaniel Dominy V plus five apprentices, erected the new mill from June to July 1806 and completed the mill by October 1806. Dominy V also constructed the windmills at Gardiner Island in 1795 and Shelter Island in 1810. When Hook Windmill was built, it replaced a "spider-shaped" mill dating to about 1740 in the same spot. Account records of Nathaniel Dominy IV mention repairing Abraham Mulford's mill's sills and braces in the 1770s, 1780s, and 1790s; this wording suggests that the ca. 1740 mill was a post style windmill and not the later, smock type. The "sills" probably were the cross-trees of a post mill, with the "braces" being the quarter bars. The 24-inch square center post of the Hook Windmill appears to be re-used from the earlier post mill in this spot; the post is the largest seen in surviving windmills on Long Island and has mortises cut for the tenons of the former quarter bar. The first smock mill in East Hampton was built by Dominy IV in 1769 at the south end of Main Street.The new mill in 1806 was one of three wind-powered gristmills in the village when it was built, including the Pantigo Mill and Gardiner Mill; all three windmills survive. Only routine maintenance and minor repairs were made on the Hook Windmill through 1835, as seen in Dominy V's account book. The miller at the Hook Mill, Charles Hedges, came to own the mill by 1850 along with Nathaniel Dominy VII. The pair traveled to New York City in 1850 and purchased a new set of burr stones, a cob crusher, and bolting cloth for the mill. Dominy VII bought out Hedges' interest in 1859 and continued to operate the mill with his sons until 1908. The 1860 federal census of agriculture listed the Hook Windmill as grinding about 5,000 bushels of grain into flour and feed in the prior twelve months. By contrast, a modern steam-powered grist mill built in Southampton in 1851 ground 25,000 bushels of grain in the same twelve months. Dominy VII wrote to the Columbian Foundry on New York City in 1892, asking them to make him a new cob crusher to replace the one he bought from them in 1850. Corn cobs were crushed in the device to provide winter animal feed; of Long Island surviving windmills, only the Hook and Pantigo Windmills have cob crushers. An elevator made up of a leather belt with tin cups attached takes grain from a bin on the first floor up to the third floor. Wheat first goes to a revolving spinner with screens to remove the chaff and dirt.Charles Dominy, the son of Nathaniel Dominy VII, restored Hook Windmill to working order in 1939 for the Village of East Hampton. Charles then took over the operation of the mill and ran it until 1942. Maurice Lester took over as the miller in 1942 and the mill was operated in to the 1950s. The windmill has been open briefly in the summers as a museum. There was talk in 2016 of moving the windmill to the nearby East Hampton Farm Museum. The windmill is said to have caused accidents when truck drivers get distracted by sight of it and miss road signage on N. Main for a ten-foot clearance, slamming into the railroad trestle for the Long Island Railroad.

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.

Hook Windmill

Selah Lester bought the land where the East Hampton Historical Farm Museum is located in the 1870s from Cybil Dominy. Lester moved an eighteenth-century farmhouse he had just purchased from Amagansett to the property. The Lester farmhouse now houses the museum, after housing four generations of the Lester family. The barn on the property was built by Selah Lester in the 1880s. Also on display is a farm wagon that Roy Lester used to use as a taxi, taking visitors from the railroad station (which opened in 1895) to the south shore beaches. The grounds of the park have a beautiful flower garden, the Matthew Lester Memorial Garden.Restoration of the farmhouse and barn was funded by the East Hampton Town Community Preservation Fund. The museum is considered to be "an interactive learning center and park." None of the historical items displayed in the barn have been purchased - all were donated from local families. Thirty-minute guided tours are offered for a five-dollar donation.A special event is planned for Saturday, July 10th 2021 at 1pm, according to the museum's Facebook page: Dell Cullum, iconic animal rescuer, author, photographer and film maker, will talk about his newest children's book about his squirrel! Joining him is illustrator Michelle Mott and Athena the owl. Donations are welcome and his children's books will be for sale. The museum sometimes screens movies outdoors onto the side of the barn.

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.

East Hampton Historical Farm Museum

The Sherrill family farm once extended along the east side of North Main Street in East Hampton from Cedar Street to Floyd Street. The Sherrill family has preserved the 1792 deed for the original purchase of 19 acres by Lt. Abraham Sherrill from the Conkling family. Nathaniel Nutting Sherrill lived in the farmhouse in 1859 with his bride, Adelia Anna; his parents; and three brothers. Stephen Sherrill and Charles A. Glover of Sag Harbor renovated the house for Nathaniel. The stone foundation of the older farmhouse was reused in the 1850s when most of the farmhouse (except the kitchen wing) was demolished and the main block was rebuilt. The front door and six-over-six sash windows were the originals from the 1850s when the house was documented for the National Register in 1995. A narrow, two-story, flat-roofed addition on the east side of the house dates to 1890. The farmhouse's kitchen was rebuilt in a one-story, shed-roof addition built onto the east side of the building in 1927 with an enamel sink and a breakfast nook. This is when the previous kitchen wing of about 13 by 32 feet was removed from the rear (north) side of the house and set up on the property behind the house as a free-standing outbuilding; it became a garage and later a studio.Sherrill Foster was the great-great-great-granddaughter of the farm's original owner; she built a small house on a lot adjacent to the lot containing the historic farmhouse where she was born. Sherrill Foster was an East Hampton historian; she organized a family reunion in 1992 to mark the 200th anniversary of the original purchase of the property by their ancestor. The historic farmhouse was put up for sale in the early 1990s on a one-acre lot but did not sell. The Town of East Hampton bought development rights to 16 acres of the farm's land in 1995, paying over a half million dollars to preserve its use for agriculture. The historic farmhouse and its lot were not part of the sale. Sherrill Foster bequeathed the farmhouse and the remaining three acres of the farm to her son, Jonathan Foster, an architect; and her daughter, Mary Foster Morgan. The siblings put the property up for sale again in 2012. They later split the property, with two acres including the 20th-century house going to Mary. The farmhouse and one acre became Jonathan's, and was sold in May 2015 to private buyers. For years, there was talk of creating a museum at the farmhouse, but the town had already used preservation funds to buy another farmhouse nearby for a museum (the East Hampton Farm Museum opened in 2014). The new owners completed some renovations of the Sherrill farmhouse but kept the house's architectural integrity intact; they included the home on an annual local history tour in 2016.

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.

South Shore Long Island Historical Driving Tour, Water Mill to Wainscott to East Hampton

Parrish Art Museum

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information