Milton Freeman

Milton Freeman, an art collector and enthusiastic theatergoer who for many years owned 1780 Antiques House in Water Mill, died on Sunday at Southampton Hospital. He was 92.

He was a designer of bed linens and bath towels when, in 1952, friends introduced him to Robert Ullman, a press agent working in the theater world of Broadway. Both men enjoyed attending the theater, and a lifetime partnership was formed. They also made regular trips to the city’s art galleries and museums.

Later in the 1950s, when Mr. Ullman’s career took him to East Hampton, where he was the press agent for Guild Hall, Mr. Freeman followed, working in the city during the week and spending weekends in East Hampton. The couple decided they would eventually retire here, and in 1959 they purchased a house on Springs-Fireplace Road, in the Clearwater Beach area of Springs.

Mr. Freeman’s love of antiques and art spurred the couple to make annual four-week-long fall sojourns to London and Paris. Mr. Freeman was particularly fond of the Impressionist school of painting.

He was an impeccable dresser, Mr. Ullman said.

It was Mr. Freeman’s interest in antiques and art that inspired the two to open a shop in Bridgehampton. Then, in the mid-1970s, they bought a property in Water Mill. Mr. Freeman ran the antiques shop, which was first called Collectables. When they began to receive midnight phone calls from people looking for comic books and Shirley Temple dolls, however, they decided to change it to 1780 Antiques House, so named because part of the building dated from that year.

Mr. Freeman lived in the quarters behind the shop for much of each year, returning to Springs for the summer season.

“It was a very different place,” Mr. Ullman said yesterday about East Hampton back then. “It wasn’t gentrified. The shops were mom-and-pop stores.”

Born in New York City to the former Bertha Jacobs, Mr. Freeman grew up on the Upper West Side and attended Stuyvesant High School. During World War II, he was a staff sergeant stationed in Daytona Beach, Fla. After the war, he earned a bachelor’s degree at New York University.

In addition to his partner of 63 years, Mr. Freeman is survived by a sister-in-law, Eileen Freeman.

A private service is being held today, with burial at Beth David Cemetery in Elmont.