Wainscott Heritage Project

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Wainscott Heritage Project

Wainscott Heritage ProjectWainscott Heritage ProjectWainscott Heritage Project
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Resource Guide
  • Events
  • News & Press
  • Contact Us

NEWS & PRESS 2025

Wainscott House Demolished To Make Way for Controversial Spec House

27east.com | East Hampton Press | 

Jack Motz | May 7, 2025


A battle between a Wainscott Hollow Road property owner and the East Hampton Town Architectural Review Board ended last week with the demolition of a house to make way for a controversial replacement.

At the core of the issue — which spawned two lawsuits — was a question of whether the new spec house would fit the historic character of the surrounding area. In the end, a Suffolk County Supreme Court judge sided against the town, deeming the property owner’s concessions sufficient....


In an Instagram reel on “demo day,” the Wainscott Heritage Project showed the trucks at work, looping in a string rendition of “Another One Bites the Dust.”

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NEWS & PRESS 2024

Land Should Be Landmarked

Amid Some Confusion, East Hampton Town Board Holds Hearing on Osborn Homestead Landmark Designation

Town Eyes Landmark Status in Wainscott

The East Hampton Star | 

Editorial

December 12, 2024 


...In a plea to help assure the property’s preservation over the long haul, members of the Wainscott Heritage Project, a private group, have asked the town board to designate the entire parcel as an important historical site. Their concern is warranted — East Hampton Town officials have gotten in the shortsighted habit of removing park status from various sites in order for their development for ostensibly public benefits...

As a largely undisturbed site, the area around Wainscott Pond could well contain evidence of the area’s original human occupants, as documented at nearby Georgica Pond and Mecox Bay. The land likely was also farmed by some of the area’s enslaved people of African heritage. As a monument to them and the people who were here before the Europeans, honoring the land, too, would seem essential.

For the time being, the town board intends to designate an old farmhouse and adjacent structure as historic landmarks. We see no reason not to extend this to the entire property.


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Town Eyes Landmark Status in Wainscott

Amid Some Confusion, East Hampton Town Board Holds Hearing on Osborn Homestead Landmark Designation

Town Eyes Landmark Status in Wainscott

The East Hampton Star | 

Christopher Gangemi

December 12, 2024 


While an earlier public hearing about preserving the 30-acre lot was full of praise for the board and the acquisition, at last Thursday’s hearing, three members of the Wainscott Heritage Project, while reiterating praise for the large purchase, questioned why the land wouldn’t also be designated as a landmark along with the structures.


“The farm goes with the farmhouse,” said Esperanza Leon, the president of the Wainscott Heritage Project’s board of directors. She noted a 1990 survey of historic and architectural resources prepared by Robert Hefner that highlighted that 66 Main Street was “The only parcel remaining in historic Wainscott where the dwelling is not divided from the farmland. The Wainscott Heritage Project strongly encourages the town board to designate the entirety of the John Osborn Homestead as a historic landmark, inclusive of the three accent structures and surrounding 30 acres. The fields surrounding Wainscott Pond comprise a cultural landscape that is a significant feature of the site and is integral to the historic designation.”

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Amid Some Confusion, East Hampton Town Board Holds Hearing on Osborn Homestead Landmark Designation

Amid Some Confusion, East Hampton Town Board Holds Hearing on Osborn Homestead Landmark Designation

Amid Some Confusion, East Hampton Town Board Holds Hearing on Osborn Homestead Landmark Designation

The East Hampton Press | 27east.com | Christopher Walsh

December 10, 2024 


...Last Thursday’s hearing included a presentation by Hilary Osborn Malecki, a 10th generation Osborn, who detailed the history of the property and its structures. She was followed by members of the Wainscott Heritage Project, who asked that a third structure, described as a small accessory farm building, be considered for landmark status as well. They also addressed a late edit to the proposed resolution: While it was initially written to designate the site as well as two of its structures, it was modified to apply historic landmark status only to the two structures...


While acquisition of the parcel “will be a game-changer,” said Carolyn Logan Gluck, “Wainscott Heritage Project was disturbed to hear the town board decide to designate only the two most sizable built structures. … We urge the Town Board to reconsider and designate the entire parcel, the land and all the existing structures, as historic. We have consulted a number of preservationists who recommend the same,” she said.



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Historic Purchase

LI's Hidden Black History

Amid Some Confusion, East Hampton Town Board Holds Hearing on Osborn Homestead Landmark Designation

Newsday | 

Joe Werkmeister

November 14, 2024 



READ ON NEWSDAY.COM

LI's Hidden Black History

LI's Hidden Black History

LI's Hidden Black History

Newsday | 

Liza N. Burby

February 25, 2024 



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NEWS & PRESS 2023

A Grant for Historic Survey in Wainscott

The East Hampton Star | 

Christine Sampson

August 10, 2023 


The Wainscott Heritage Project, a nonprofit formed in 2021, will undertake a survey of historic structures in that hamlet after receiving a $14,400 grant from the Preserve New York initiative, funded by the Preservation League of New York State, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.


Historic surveys are often the first step in the establishment of a historic district and the addition of structures to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The new grant, according to the Wainscott Heritage Project, will help assess the "basic historic and/or architectural contexts associated with the development and physical character of an area."


The Sarah Kautz Consulting Corporation has been selected to perform the survey work, which will include inventories of historic buildings that incorporate maps and photographs as well as recommendations for further studies. Sarah Kautz is an archaeologist, historical anthropologist, and preservation advocate who in June lectured on "best practices and models for historic preservation" at the Wainscott Chapel.


image: photo by Durell Godfrey

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Preservation Advocacy in Wainscott

The East Hampton Star | 

Christine Sampson

June 22, 2023 


Sarah Kautz, an archaeologist, historical anthropologist, and preservation advocate, will speak on Saturday at 10 a.m. about "best practices and models for historic preservation in the context of Wainscott."


According to the Wainscott Heritage Project, Ms. Kautz believes that "we can achieve growth and prosperity without destroying our shared resources to make way for poorly designed, insensitive redevelopment in our communities."


A question-and-answer session will follow her remarks.

The event is to be held at the Wainscott Chapel on the hamlet's Main Street and is free to attend, though advance sign-up is encouraged. 


image: photo by Durell Godfrey


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Wainscott Heritage Project Hosts Talk With Sarah Kautz

Wainscott Heritage Project Hosts Talk With Sarah Kautz

James Lane Post 

June 22, 2023 


Wainscott Heritage Project will host the first in a series of history talks at Wainscott Chapel (65 Wainscott Main Street) on Saturday, June 24, at 10 AM.


Archaeologist, historical anthropologist, and preservation advocate Sarah Kautz will present Wainscott: Historic Preservation for the 21st Century. She will discuss practices and models for historic preservation in the context of Wainscott, and how these serve to empower communities to preserve and protect cultural and historic resources.


Sarah’s talk will encourage a Q&A and conversation at a municipal and regional level on how, as she states, “we can achieve growth and prosperity without destroying our shared resources to make way for poorly designed, insensitive redevelopment in our communities.”


This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are encouraged.

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Walking Through East Hampton’s History

Wainscott: Cherishing Memories of my Former Home in a Non-Hampton Hamlet in the Hamptons

Wainscott Heritage Project Hosts Talk With Sarah Kautz

The East Hampton Star | Christopher Walsh

May 25, 2023 


The East Hampton Historical Society and the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society have planned 20 collaborative events, starting next week and running through September.


“Each hamlet has its own unique history,” said Irwin Levy, the Trails Preservation Society’s president, and the events will focus on that. “Combining a hike with a presentation by a like-minded organization has been a winning formula for E.H.T.P.S. Collaborating with the historical society is a logical next step for us that benefits the entire community.”

...

Other upcoming events include A Walk-Through Art History: Brooks-Park on June 7, the Wainscott Heritage Project on June 14, a hike of the oceanside community of Beach Hampton in Amagansett on June 28, the Seven Nathaniel Dominys on July 15 in East Hampton, Something Is Fishy in Promised Land on July 22, a tour of the Springs Historic District on Aug. 5, the D’Amico Studio and Archives at Lazy Point on Aug. 12, Gerard Drive in Springs on Aug. 26, and the Eastville Historic District in Sag Harbor on Sept. 6.

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Wainscott: Cherishing Memories of my Former Home in a Non-Hampton Hamlet in the Hamptons

Wainscott: Cherishing Memories of my Former Home in a Non-Hampton Hamlet in the Hamptons

Wainscott: Cherishing Memories of my Former Home in a Non-Hampton Hamlet in the Hamptons

Known as "the Savior of Central Park, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers is also the author of ten books and is the first person to hold the title of Central Park Administrator. An influential expert in historic landscape preservation, Ms. Barlow Rogers is the founding President of the Foundation for Landscape Studies. She was a Wainscott resident for over five decades. The photo here is of the rustic bridge in the "Glen", the woodland garden she created at her former home on Sayre's Path.


Elizabeth Barlow Rogers Journal Entry | January 16, 2023

In 1965 I bought a small second home resembling a child’s picture of a house (two parallel vertical lines linked by horizontal line at the top). This kind of one-dimensional sketch, defined by the symmetrical features of the façade – two upper-story and two bottom-story windows with a central vertical rectangle representing the front door while the triangle formed by the gable end of the roof implied an attic. Such would have been an approximate portrait of the farmhouse, which together with its elongated lawn and far-back scrub woods constituted the two-and-a-half-acre property that I purchased in 1965 for $29,000.

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2021-2022

The Mission: Save Wainscott's Heritage

Our Hamptons Podcast with Irwin Levy and Esperanza Leon Part II

Our Hamptons Podcast with Irwin Levy and Esperanza Leon Part II

The East Hampton Star | Tom Gogola 

August 4, 2022

A year after a group of preservation-minded citizens successfully endeavored to dismantle and preserve the historic Little House on Wainscott Hollow Road, a new organization, the Wainscott Heritage Project, has emerged with an expansive vision and hopes that it will be able to carve out a historic district in the hamlet similar to those in Springs, Amagansett, and Montauk. 

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Our Hamptons Podcast with Irwin Levy and Esperanza Leon Part II

Our Hamptons Podcast with Irwin Levy and Esperanza Leon Part II

Our Hamptons Podcast with Irwin Levy and Esperanza Leon Part II

Wainscott: An Eastern LI Town, Part II

released July 5, 2022

Esperanza and Irwin continue to delve deeper into Wainscott.  The Wainscott Chapel, overlooking Wainscott Pond, and the Osborne homestead.  The Wainscott Sewing Society, and their good deeds for the community.  The Walker family, Wainscott's first African American family, the Conklin House, and of course, the iconic Georgica Association, one of the most unique enclaves on the east end, or anywhere for that matter.

listen now

Our Hamptons Podcast with Irwin Levy and Esperanza Leon Part I

Our Hamptons Podcast with Irwin Levy and Esperanza Leon Part II

Our Hamptons Podcast with Irwin Levy and Esperanza Leon Part I

Wainscott: An Eastern LI Town, Part I

released June 21, 2022

Esperanza explains why she is "all in" as a Wainscott resident, and why she feels it's so important to raise her children there.  She then joins Irwin on a virtual walking tour of the hamlet.  Stops include the former Wainscott Post Office on Main Street, the general store on Hollow Road, and farms, vistas and viewsheds that have stood the test of time.



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Walks with a Message

Wind Farm Survey and Prep Work to Begin

Our Hamptons Podcast with Irwin Levy and Esperanza Leon Part I

The East Hampton Star | Irene Silverman

April 14, 2022

As the new president of the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society, Irwin Levy plans to continue partnering with other organizations to offer walks that delve into history, art, and culture as well as the natural world.


WHP has been pleased to partner with EHTPS on historical hikes through Wainscott. See Events.

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Wind Farm Survey and Prep Work to Begin

Wind Farm Survey and Prep Work to Begin

Wind Farm Survey and Prep Work to Begin

The East Hampton Star | Christoper Walsh 

January 10, 2022

A ribbon was tied on a beloved tree in Wainscott. Developers of the South Fork Wind farm have said that removal of any trees along the wind farm's underground cable route will [be] subject to review by New York State Department of Public Service staff, the State Department of Environmental Conservation, and East Hampton Town. Photo: Durell Godfrey.


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Little House in the Hollow

Wind Farm Survey and Prep Work to Begin

Wind Farm Survey and Prep Work to Begin

Hamptons Cottages & Gardens | Liza N. Burby

August 15, 2021

In Wainscott, a piece of the East End's agricultural past has just been saved from the wrecking ball. Built in the 1920s on the grounds of the Strong Family potato farm on Wainscott Hollow Road, a 224-square-foot shingled cottage long known as the "Little House" has narrowly escaped demolition, thanks to the preservation efforts led by  Esperanza Leon, a member of East Hampton Town's Architectural Review Board. The single-room structure, which once housed migrant workers from the South, had sat neglected since the 1980s, but Leon caught wind that new owners of the farm property had plans to tear it down in May, so she galvanized like-minded locals, "to preserve this reminder of Wainscott's farming history," she says, "as well as the equally neglected history of its occupants."

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Big push by preservationists saves Wainscott’s “Little House”

Big push by preservationists saves Wainscott’s “Little House”

Big push by preservationists saves Wainscott’s “Little House”

The Real Deal | Dennis Lynch

July 2, 2021

Wainscott’s “Little House” has been carefully dismantled after a successful push from preservationists to save the 100-year-old shack.  The 400-square-foot structure sat on a piece of land once used as farmland by the Strong family, according to the Southampton Press, which first reported the news.

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Tiny Piece of Wainscott Farm History Saved

Big push by preservationists saves Wainscott’s “Little House”

Big push by preservationists saves Wainscott’s “Little House”

The East Hampton Star | Jon Kuperschmid 

July 1, 2021

"I have been driving past that building for decades. It has always been there," said Esperanza Leon, referring to a dilapidated little shack in Wainscott known as the Little House, which was built in the 1920s to house migrant workers.



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‘The Little House’ Is Saved

Big push by preservationists saves Wainscott’s “Little House”

As ‘Little House’ Demolition Looms, Scramble To Save Laborer Home

27east.com | Michael Wright 

June 30, 2021

“The Little House” in Wainscott met both of its possible fates this week: it was torn down, but it was also saved.  





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As ‘Little House’ Demolition Looms, Scramble To Save Laborer Home

Call To Save Wainscott ‘Little House’ Before It’s Replaced By A Big House

As ‘Little House’ Demolition Looms, Scramble To Save Laborer Home

27east.com | Michael Wright 

June 16, 2021

The effort to try to save a tiny ramshackle former home on a Wainscott farm before it is torn down to make way for development has entered its final desperate days and those leading the charge are scrambling for last-minute avenues to get the structure shored up and relocated.

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East Hampton rushes to save “historic” shack before project starts

Call To Save Wainscott ‘Little House’ Before It’s Replaced By A Big House

Call To Save Wainscott ‘Little House’ Before It’s Replaced By A Big House

The Real Deal | Dennis Lynch

April 9, 2021 

A group of East Hampton residents and town officials hope to rescue a 400-square-foot farm shack sitting on a recently sold piece of Strong family farm land, according to the Southampton Press.




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Call To Save Wainscott ‘Little House’ Before It’s Replaced By A Big House

Call To Save Wainscott ‘Little House’ Before It’s Replaced By A Big House

Call To Save Wainscott ‘Little House’ Before It’s Replaced By A Big House

27east.com | Michael Wright 

April 5, 2021

For the better part of a century, the migrant farm workers who came up from the South to work for the Strong family’s rolling acres of fields during the growing season lived in a small shack a few feet away from the Strongs’ main potato barn on Wainscott Hollow Road.

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GATHERING IN THE GARDEN

You are invited to our fourth annual

GATHERING IN THE GARDEN

SUNDAY, JULY 20, 5:00-7:00 pm


Enjoy a serene summer evening filled with community, conversation, and support for 

Wainscott Heritage Project’s preservation initiatives


$75 individual / $125 couple

TICKETS