The house shown here was home to several generations of the Dominy family of East Hampton. It was a lean-to type of house built in 1715 on the west side of Main Street.
The first Dominy recognized for the carpentry and clockwork that the family is celebrated for was Nathaniel Dominy IV (1737-1812), the son of Nathaniel Dominy III (1714-1778) and the former Elizabeth Eyres (1717-1781). Nathaniel IV served as sealer of weights and measures and as a town trustee. His son, Nathaniel V (1770-1852), followed his father as a craftsman. A grandson soon followed, named Felix Dominy (1800-1868).
These three generations lived together in the house and worked in a shop that was added to the right side of the house in 1791. Later, in 1798, a clock shop was built on the other side. These workshops housed pieces of machinery and tools used to make the clocks and furniture that made the family well known beyond East Hampton.
The last member of the Dominy family to live in the house was Charles Dominy (1873-1955), who followed his son to Massachusetts in the 1930s. The Historic American Buildings Survey visited the Dominy house to photograph and measure it in 1940. Images of the interior and exterior can be viewed digitally by way of the Library of Congress.
The house shown here was home to several generations of the Dominy family of East Hampton. It was a lean-to type of house built in 1715 on the west side of Main Street.
The first Dominy recognized for the carpentry and clockwork that the family is celebrated for was Nathaniel Dominy IV (1737-1812), the son of Nathaniel Dominy III (1714-1778) and the former Elizabeth Eyres (1717-1781). Nathaniel IV served as sealer of weights and measures and as a town trustee. His son, Nathaniel V (1770-1852), followed his father as a craftsman. A grandson soon followed, named Felix Dominy (1800-1868).
These three generations lived together in the house and worked in a shop that was added to the right side of the house in 1791. Later, in 1798, a clock shop was built on the other side. These workshops housed pieces of machinery and tools used to make the clocks and furniture that made the family well known beyond East Hampton.
The last member of the Dominy family to live in the house was Charles Dominy (1873-1955), who followed his son to Massachusetts in the 1930s. The Historic American Buildings Survey visited the Dominy house to photograph and measure it in 1940. Images of the interior and exterior can be viewed digitally by way of the Library of Congress.
The house remained vacant until 1941, when the Dominys sold it to Oscar Brill. Before it was be torn down in February 1946, Dudley Roberts Jr. bought the two shops and moved them to his property on Further Lane, where he converted them into a guesthouse. Staff at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware famously recreated the Dominy shop interiors, but the original accessory buildings themselves remained in East Hampton.
In the last few years a restoration project has been underway to reconstruct the Dominy house and restore the shops in their original locations. They will serve as a museum and show the importance of rural craftsmen during the late 18th and 19th centuries.
Mayra Scanlon is a librarian and archivist with the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection.