The Birth of a Summer Colony

The hamlet of Bridgehampton may have been settled in the middle of the 17th century, but it was forever changed with the arrival of the Long Island Rail Road in 1870, as stepping off the iron horse, of course, came the summer visitors.

The story of this transformation is told through numerous photos and captions in a new book in Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series, “Bridgehampton’s Summer Colony,” by Julie B. Greene, the curator and archivist at the Bridgehampton Museum and the local history librarian at the Hampton Library.

The photos range from one of the bridge across Sagg Pond that gave the hamlet its name, to the mansion haunts of the likes of the coal magnate John E. Berwind of Ocean Road, to spectators in their Sunday best eyeing a circa 1915 racecar send dirt flying as it rounds a curve in one of Bridgehampton’s famous road races. There are newspaper advertisements for “sea-side board” offering “piano, croquet, pleasant drives,” portraits of the Quimbys and other influential families, images of sailing, bicycling, and picnics, and houses, houses, houses of the summer colony, among them exemplars of the Shingle Style.

Ms. Greene will give an illustrated talk about the book on May 16 at the Bridgehampton Museum’s Corwith House at a time to be announced.