An annual highlight of Thanksgiving weekend is the East Hampton Historical Society's House and Garden Tour, which this year features five intriguing residences; each, according to the society, with a surprise.
As always, a sold-out benefit cocktail party at the Maidstone Club kicks off the event tomorrow evening from 6 to 8, with the self-guided tour set for Saturday from 1 to 4:30 p.m.
While last year's tour featured a stop at Grey Gardens, this year the Grey Gardens carriage house will open its doors. Both structures were designed by Joseph Greenleaf Thorp and built in 1896, and purchased together in 1924 as one parcel by Phelan Beale, as a home for his new bride, Edith Bouvier Beale, later known as Big Edie.
The Beales were divorced in 1946, and their daughter, Little Edie, moved in with her mother in 1952. They lived in the main house on and off until Big Edie's death in 1977, but she sold the 1.1-acre carriage house in 1953 to raise money (they were living on a fixed income from her ex-husband). The expanded carriage house, with water views from the master bedroom, was purchased in 2018 by a couple who have brought it into the 21st century.
Courtesy of the East Hampton Historical Society
A pale pink-tinged shingled house on Egypt Lane was built in 1876 by George Eldredge, a self-taught architect and an important East Hampton builder of summer colony residences. Among the features of the Colonial-style house are wide hallways, extra-wide doorways, and an Alexander Calder mobile in the living room.
The surprise, according to the historical society, is an optical illusion. The space moves between interior and exterior with the appearance of going on and on, yet the house is situated on a relatively modest 1.2 acres. The property includes an expansive outdoor kitchen with an enclosed 18-seat dining table that affords views of the manicured garden and terrace.
Another venerable house is on Main Street, but hidden from view down a long driveway. The building was framed from an original 18th-century barn; the Samuel Buell house was relocated to the property at the turn of the 17th century, and a horse chestnut tree, which dates back decades, is possibly the oldest on the East Coast. Vaulted ceilings in the English Tudor style add to the appeal as does a semicircular sofa in the living room.
When David Netto, the interior designer, found a 1980 beach house, it consisted of three disjointed ramshackle hexagons so oddly configured that he was at first convinced it would have to come down. In 2012, however, working with Will Meyer of Meyer Davis Studio, Mr. Netto transformed it into a series of airy pavilions, all of whose doors lead to the beach.
"The house is everything we set out to achieve in that spot," he said. "It's less a house than a celebration of the environment; of the nature and the changing light of this place. This is success, because aside from aesthetics, what a house is supposed to do, this one does -- it's a happiness machine. My children and I are happier there than anywhere else in the world."
Like the hexagonal house, the Springs home of Craig Socia, a noted garden designer, is relatively young, built in 1998 down a long driveway off Old Stone Highway. Totally refashioned over the past two years, the creative details include a massive vintage Louis Vuitton trunk, H-folded blankets draped on sofas and beds, a wall of clocks, and Eames side chairs in the dining room.
Among the outside features are a manicured Cleveland Pear allee, single stands of weeping trees, a gazebo of curved logs and branches, and a secluded pool and hot tub.
Tickets to tomorrow's Maidstone cocktail party are $275 and include entry to the House and Garden tour. Tickets to the tour were $95 in advance of Thanksgiving; $120 tomorrow and Saturday. All tickets can be bought by phone at 631-324-6850, online at easthamptonhistory.org, and at Clinton Academy, 151 Main Street, tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 till 2.
