Secrets of the Pink House
There are a few buildings in the Town of East Hampton that are noted for their pink color, including the house seen being constructed in this image. This particular house is on Abraham’s Path, near the intersection with Three Mile Harbor Road.
When I asked my local co-workers about its location, they were confused because they didn’t think it was “old enough” for me to be researching. This conversation made me realize how necessary it is to remind people that the Long Island Collection is just as interested in the recent past as it is in people and events from 200 to 300 years ago.
The Pink House on Abraham’s Path was built by Fortunato Maragliano and his family, who traveled here each summer from Tenafly, N.J. Fortunato (1881-1966) and his wife, Rose Morando Maragliano (1888-1969), appear in front of a concrete wall in this photograph from 1946-47. Standing to their left in a button-front dress is their son Angelo’s wife, Concetta (Connie) Musumeci Maragliano. Rose and Fortunato both immigrated to New Jersey from Genoa, Italy, and ran a grocery store in Tenafly. They had 10 children.
How the family came to East Hampton may seem familiar to some. Around 1946, Fortunato bought the abandoned and burned Olympic Heights Hotel property with his friends the Cavagnaros. Edward J. Bowen’s efforts to develop the Olympic Heights property into a resort failed, but his hotel featured 18-inch-thick concrete walls for the entire first floor.
The Cavagnaros turned their half of the property into an apartment building, while the Maraglianos transformed their half into a place for family vacations.
Fortunato and Rose gave each son portions of the property, while the house was left to their six daughters, who continued to bring their own families to East Hampton until 1990 (with each daughter claiming one week per summer).
The house remains in the family today, offering a snapshot of another kind of life for “summer people” in East Hampton.
Andrea Meyer is a librarian and archivist in the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection.
