Southampton Is 375 Years Old
Southampton Town is celebrating its 375th birthday with a yearlong series of lectures, exhibitions, walking tours, parties, and dinners at locations throughout the town, beginning today at 3 p.m. with a screening of “The Manors of Long Island” at the Rogers Memorial Library. Next Thursday at 3 p.m., also at the library, Georgette Grier-Key, director and curator of the Eastville Community Historical Society, will discuss the influence of African-Americans locally and in the larger society.
The birthday party will kick into high gear on March 7 with a 3 p.m. convocation at the Southampton Presbyterian Church, the opening of “If These Walls Could Talk,” an exhibition at the Rogers Mansion from 4 to 6, and dinner, with produce from the Halsey Farm, at the Southampton Inn at 7.
The convocation will celebrate the founding in 1640 of the towns of Southampton and Southold and their Presbyterian churches, with speakers, music, and poetry. Speakers at the free gathering will include Suffolk County Legislators Al Krupski, who represents Southold, and Jay Schneiderman, representing Southampton, as well as the Revs. Peter Kelly and Richard Boyer, ministers of the Southold and Southampton churches.
Elizabeth Thunderbird Halle will represent the Shinnecock Nation, Mayor Mark Epley the Village of Southampton, John v.H. Halsey the Peconic Land Trust, and the Rev. Michael Smith, the Shinnecock Presbyterian Church. Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan, Suffolk County poet laureate emeritus, will read her just-completed “Poem for Southampton’s 375th Anniversary.”
The Southampton Presbyterian Church choir, the Southampton High School choir, and Showers of Blessings, the gospel choir from King’s Chapel Church of God in Christ in Southampton, will perform music for the occasion.
The exhibition “If These Walls Could Talk” will represent four different periods in the history of the Rogers Mansion. According to Tom Edmonds, executive director of the Southampton Historical Museum, “the Rogers family established the farm in 1648 and lived there until the 1880s.” The family will be represented by two rooms, one replicating the 1680s, the other a parlor from the 1860s.
An 1880s dining room will capture the spirit of the Nugent family, which purchased the property from the Rogers family. Samuel Parrish, its third owner, will be represented by a parlor from the turn of the century. Emma Ballou, the museum’s curator, will give a talk about the history of the mansion at 4:30, and refreshments will be served.
“We want to focus on who lived here,” said Mr. Edmonds. “We want to tell the stories about the families and their relationship to Southampton. They were significant people, not so much because of money but because of where they lived, which was right next to the meeting house, the center of local religion and government.” The exhibition will highlight not only the families, but also the role played by the mansion in the community.
Planning for the anniversary celebration began in the fall of 2013, when a member of the Howell family called Mr. Edmonds to ask what the museum was doing about the birthday. “That was a reality shock, and I said, ‘I’ll get back to you.’ We quickly formed a committee here in the village with 40 government, business, and cultural organizations. We started meeting and slowly put together a program.”
Dr. Ann Sandford, a historian, will deliver a lecture on “Sandford and Sons: Legacy of a Bridgehampton Family” on March 12 at the Rogers Mansion. Twelve generations of the Sandford/ Sanford family have figured prominently in the development of Bridgehampton.
Other lecture topics include “Historic Preservation Options,” “The Shinnecock Indians: America’s First Whalers,” “John Gardiner and Captain Kidd’s Treasure,” and “Houses of the Hamptons: Postcards From the Gilded Age.”
The third annual Samuel L. Parrish lecture, given by Cynthia V.A. Schaffner and Lori Zabar, decorative-arts historians, will focus on William Merritt Chase, the Shinnecock Summer School of Art, and the Art Village in Shinnecock Hills. That talk will take place in the music room of Whitefield, a Hill Street mansion designed by Stanford White.
Tours will explore the Nathaniel Rogers House, Southampton’s houses of worship, Southampton’s first settlement, the Shinnecock Museum, and the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum. On June 14, the Southampton Trails Preservation Society will recreate the 1640 walk during which the Shinnecocks guided English pioneers from Conscience Point in North Sea to Southampton Village.
A lawn party will be held on July 11 at the Halsey House, Southampton’s oldest existing residence, and a New Year’s Eve Grand Finale bash will take place at the Port of Missing Men in North Sea, the last large private estate in Southampton, built by H.H. Rogers Jr., the heir to a Standard Oil fortune.
“Our local history is not something that’s on most people’s minds,” said Mr. Edmonds, who is the chairman of the anniversary committee, “but it’s the reason we live here. It’s a beautiful, charming place where buildings and land have been preserved. So the focus of all these events is to bring the heritage back, so the public can be aware of why they’re here.”
A complete listing of anniversary programs and events can be found at southamptonhistoricalmuseum.org.