Renovated House Is New But Old

At one of East Hampton's most visible houses, the former Edmund Tillinghast residence at 17 Woods Lane, renovations have been in progress for two years, and many passersby may think the 260-year-old house has been doubled or tripled in size.

They will find, if they take the trouble to walk around the back, that they are mistaken.

The last family member to live in the house was Caroline Collins Tillinghast, the widow of Frank Henry Tillinghast Sr. In 1995, after she died, her son, Frank Henry Jr., sold it to Lynne Breslin, a Manhattan architect who specializes in gallery and museum exhibits and teaches at Columbia University.

Lifted And Turned

Ms. Breslin has done extensive renovations on the old house - in fact, she said last week, she has spent so much that she cannot afford to keep it. It is on the market for $1.7 million.

She had the house lifted from its rubble foundation, which had settled several feet, and rotated 90 degrees to make room for a swimming pool and garden in a triangular space between the two ells. An underground garage was built and the lawn regraded.

The view from Woods Lane, formerly of the front face alone, now is of a dramatic sweep that takes in the front and one side. But it is the back that may make purists catch their breath.

There, three additions, two put on in the 19th century and one early in this century, have been removed. Where there once were shingles and gables and small windows, there is now a wall of glass.

"I very much love old houses but I also like aspects of modern architecture," said Ms. Breslin, "particularly the proximity to the outside. I don't like old houses that are dark."

"So, I kept the proportion and character of the old spaces and built a glass membrane that feels seamless and brings in light."

Almost A Replica

Surprisingly, despite all the work, the front of the house is almost a replica of what it looked like 100 years or so ago. In fact, it is almost identical to an 1890s photograph in the East Hampton Library's Long Island Collection.

The shutters have been deleted, a sloping overhang over the front door has become a balcony for the master bedroom, and the main chimney has been shifted an unnoticeable 18 inches.

A stone bearing the date the house was built, 1736, remains at the front door.

Ms. Breslin's is believed to be the most extensive reconstruction the historic house has ever undergone.

Its first two-story addition was in 1884. Four years later, The Star noted that Henry Tillinghast, the great-grandfather of Frank Henry Jr., had commissioned another two-story addition with a bow window, which Ms. Breslin has reproduced.

Those additions were probably built to enable the introduction of indoor plumbing in the kitchen, pantry, and bathrooms, all in one corner of the house. But in terms of traffic flow, Ms. Breslin said, they made little sense.

Interior Alterations

She made drastic alterations to the interior. "You had to walk through one bedroom to get to another," she explained, "so I ran a corridor down each ell. I really simplified the plans very much."

A bedroom over what is now the formal sitting room was eliminated, giving the sitting room a lofty ceiling. A small staircase in the master bedroom had led to three tiny warrens; that space is now an open loft.

Brand-New Masonry

The support structure throughout the house was exposed, the old ceiling beams one at a time, as "in an archeological excavation."

The masonry is all new. The original fireplaces, Ms. Breslin said, were too precarious to be preserved.

The architect is married to a descendant of Job Sayre, an early settler of Southampton, which, she said, partly inspired her ambitious project. She consulted many books on local history in the process, she said.

The property was owned in the 17th century by John Miller and later by Roger Smith. It is unclear who built the first house there but, in 1828, Abraham and Puah Barnes signed the deed to the house, the farm, the livestock, and the farming utensils over to the first Tillinghast to live there, Edmund, an orphan they had taken in as a young boy.

Lifetime Arrangement

That year, when he was 28, Edmund and his wife, Mary Petty Tillinghast, agreed in writing to care for Mr. and Mrs. Barnes for the rest of their lives in return for the inheritance.

In "Up and Down Main Street," Jeannette Edwards Rattray notes that such arrangements were not uncommon. There were no nursing homes in those days.

Altogether, there are three houses associated with the Tillinghast family in the village, all in a line.

Tillinghast Houses

Thomas Tillinghast still lives on the corner of Woods Lane and Georgica Road, in the newest of the three, on property that includes a large barn.

To the east, a house built by Stafford Tillinghast in 1876 is preserved in its original condition, though it is now the Centennial House bed and breakfast.

Between them is 17 Woods Lane. It is about 5,000 square feet, not counting the garage.

Despite the age of the buildings and their family associations, the three Tillinghast properties were not included in the village's historic district, which stops across Woods Lane, at the corner of Main Street. A 1991 attempt to expand the district by some 200 properties was opposed by many of their owners.

With little vacant buildable land left in the village, Robert Hefner, the historic-preservation expert and consultant, said more and more property owners are, like Ms. Breslin, opting to renovate and modernize.

"What is unusual about this one," said Mr. Hefner, "is that it's so close to the historic district, and on Woods Lane."