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Dominy Shops Set to Move

By
Christopher Walsh

The historic Dominy clock and woodworking shops that were moved decades ago to the Further Lane property now owned by the investor Barry Rosenstein will soon begin a journey back to North Main Street, where they were constructed in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Mr. Rosenstein, who purchased the 16 acres at 60, 62, and 64 Further Lane in East Hampton last year for a reported $147 million, donated the little structures, which were merged when they were moved to 62 Further Lane in 1946, to the East Hampton Historical Society.

Bob Hefner, East Hampton Village’s historic preservation consultant, said on Friday that additions made to the merged buildings, including a brick chimney, have been removed and the grounds around them graded. He told the village board that Guy Davis, a fourth-generation building mover, would oversee the move, which is expected to happen next week.

The shops will sit temporarily behind the historical society’s Mulford Farm barn, at which time Mr. Rosenstein’s donation will be complete, Mr. Hefner told the board. Later, they will be returned to North Main Street, where a plaque is already in place.

A recent report in The Star about the donation of the Dominy shops, Mr. Hefner told the board, spurred another historically important gift. Stephen Manheimer, who has a house in Southampton and collects South Fork-related historical objects, contacted the historical society to say that in 1999 he had acquired about 200 small tools, most of them for clock-making and repair and some bearing the Dominy inscription, from the now defunct Windmill Galleries in Southampton. Mr. Manheimer has donated the trove, which also includes Dominy family papers, to the historical society.

“Now,” Mr. Hefner told the board, “not only can we restore the shops inside and outside, but 200 tools that were used in the Dominy shops can go back in there.” Mr. Manheimer deserves “a lot of credit,” he said, “and we’re very grateful to him for having the sentiment that these tools belong back in the shop.”

 

 

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