Egypt Close to Lazy Point
The East Hampton Historical Society’s 2016 House and Garden tour offers an opportunity to burn a few holiday calories while visiting five houses that run the gamut from an 1840s Greek Revival to a contemporary waterfront at Lazy Point. The annual Thanksgiving weekend event will take place Saturday from 1 to 4:30 p.m.
The beachfront house on Gardiner’s Bay is approached through a landscape of prairies and dense forest and sits amid sand, pine trees, and beach grasses. The firm of Thierry Pfister Architecture & Design renovated an existing house with a modern vocabulary that integrates the house with its beach environment. The redesigned interior creates flowing spaces between the entry hall, kitchen, dining, and living rooms, and oversized sliding glass doors provide water views from every vantage point.
The oldest house on the tour, near the intersection of Springs-Fireplace Road and North Main Street in East Hampton, was built on a 1750 foundation. That structure was bought by the Sherrill family in 1792 and torn down, except for the kitchen wing, in the 1850s. It was replaced by a Greek Revival house that is on the National Register of Historic Places. The current owners have retained the proportions and detailing of the old farmhouse, from its newel post to the fireplace mantels to the classical door surround. Antique furnishings complement the classically proportioned rooms.
The mansions of Amagansett’s Devon Colony, fleetingly glimpsed from Cranberry Hole Road, have a distinctive look that sets them apart from the area’s typical shingled cottages. Richmond Levering, a wealthy businessman from Cincinnati, built the house at 18 Cranberry Lane for his mother in 1910. Though shingled, its look is more formal than the typical cottage, with pitched gables and accents reminiscent of the Italianate style. The interior rooms are filled with original details: decorative columns in the living room, four fireplaces, and an unusual number of windows, which create a light and airy ambience.
Two of the houses on the tour, both in East Hampton Village, have been built within the last four years. Working with a design-conscious couple, the architect John Laffey completed a shingle-style revival near Further Lane that reflects its 19th-century heritage without neglecting modern amenities. There are formal areas for entertaining, casual spaces where the family’s dogs can run free, and an unusually capacious kitchen. The owners’ art collection includes works by Childe Hassam, Charles Warren Easton, Edward Moran, and other 19th and early-20th-century artists.
Another shingle-style revival was designed by Francis Fleetwood on Egypt Close to retain the classic proportions of the 19th-century cottages while respecting the clients’ desire for a house that was “beach casual.” The seamless flow from room to room takes its cues from Stanford White. The interior designers, Tom Samet and Nathan Wold, chose a color palette with hints of driftwood, sunset, and sand, with natural fibers and abundant texture to create pattern and shadow.
An opening night cocktail party, a benefit for the historical society, will be held tomorrow evening from 6 to 8:30 at the Maidstone Club in East Hampton Village. Tickets, which also include the Saturday tour, are $200. Tickets to the self-guided tour are $65 in advance, $75 the day of the tour, and can be purchased at easthamptonhistory.org or at Clinton Academy, 151 Main Street, tomorrow and Saturday between 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.