Coast Guard Reno Wrapping Up
“There is light at the end of the tunnel,” David Lys, president of the Amagansett Life Saving and Coast Guard Station Society and chairman of the committee charged with resurrecting the 1902 structure, said on Monday. The effort to restore the Atlantic Avenue station, one of East Hampton Town’s most storied marine buildings, has reached the finishing stage, with the focus having moved to the interior. “We still have a lot to do: carving, paint, detail work,” Mr. Lys said, but “it’s nice to be talking about that now.”
Indeed, it has been a long road, with a great many participants pitching in. Contributions of labor by the builder Ben Krupinski and of materials from Riverhead Building Supply, among several others, have allowed the restoration to be performed in accordance with its original construction, according to Mr. Lys. “Getting some vintage millwork done with original materials is very important to us,” he said. The society hopes that the building will ultimately be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. “To do that, we need to use as many original materials as possible.”
The late Joel Carmichael bought the decommissioned structure from the town in 1966, moving it to a nearby site off Bluff Road for use as a family residence. In 2007, Mr. Carmichael’s heirs donated it back to the town, at which time it was returned to its original location. The reconstruction effort began in 2012.
“When it was moved in 1966, certain things were changed,” Mr. Lys said. Alterations included the removal of much of its wraparound porch. “Between 1902 and 1966, they changed a lot. We’re fortunate that maybe 75 percent was still in place as far as the interior trim work.”
The building is now heated. “People have been doing work for four years without heat,” Mr. Lys said. “It’s nice to see people in here working in a T-shirt instead of five or six layers. People work better, and quicker.” Now, he said, “We’re going through the final list of work, room to room.”
The society’s goal is for the project to be completed in time for the annual re-enactment of a not-very-well-known but critically important event in World War II: the June 1942 landing of four Nazi saboteurs on the ocean beach near Atlantic Avenue, and the Nazis’ spotting by a 21-year-old coastguardsman patrolling from the station.
Last July, as renovation of the structure’s exterior neared completion, the society held a lobster bake on the grounds to raise money for the continued effort. The event also served to celebrate the acquisition of an original 1908 Beebe surfboat. Built in Greenport, it is the last such boat known to exist. As an active rescue boat, it was stationed at the United States Coast Guard’s New Shoreham station on Block Island. It was located in North Carolina and transported to the Amagansett station’s boat room, and is on loan from the National Park Service.
At that time, Michael Cinque, co-chairman of the restoration committee, said that the society, which had recently gained status as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, hoped to endow the station with a director and provide tours for schools and other groups.
Mr. Lys said on Monday that the society is pursuing other acquisitions, along with planning the station’s educational component.