How to say goodbye to a family house that has seen almost eight decades’ worth of life and love? Some might spend this melancholy time wandering through empty rooms, lost in thoughts, remembering the places where family members played and argued, hung the artwork, and marked the walls with pencil lines as children grew taller.
Ellie Duke had another idea: “Come! Play! Bring your friends!” she wrote on her website, inviting the world to Tough Porch, her brainchild of a weekend held on Saturday and Sunday at her family’s grand old summer “cottage” on Georgica Beach that is being sold. Ms. Duke turned the sprawling low-key property into an immersive space for art, music, food, dancing, partying, and an altogether vibrant lost-in-the-moment experience.
“It’s the last hurrah before it changes hands for the first time in 80 years,” Ms. Duke, 30, said of the nine-bedroom shingled house at 15 West End Road that her great-grandparents bought in 1945. “This house had a lot of life and art in it forever. It’s always been a gathering place for our family — we’re a creative, kooky bunch — and we’re so connected to such an amazing community of artists out here, that it just turned into something homegrown.”
Tough Porch allowed “Scheererville,” as the home was known, to uphold, for one last time, a family’s tradition of opening its doors to just about anyone who wished to revel in its barefoot, old world charm. Every summer, according to Ms. Duke, the house hosted innumerable dinner parties, welcomed couch-surfing family members, and provided parking for surfer friends eager to catch waves at the Georgica jetty. Despite the passage of time, much of the property remains unchanged, mutinously so, along a stretch dotted with the estates of the 1-percenters. The house is still neither winterized nor air-conditioned, there’s no gate at the entrance, or even fussily-landscaped gardens or an updated kitchen.
Ring Lardner, a well-known sports columnist and friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald, built the house in 1927 and sold it to the Scheerers, who were owners of a dairy and a community bank in New Jersey. Their daughter-in-law Idoline Crabbe Scheerer, Ms. Duke’s grandmother, died in 2021, signaling the moment when the family would need to close the door behind them forever.
The house is now shared by the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original Scheerer owners: William and Idoline Scheerer’s children, Idoline Duke of Springs, Jane Parkes of East Hampton, Laura Lochrane of Ojai, Calif., and Tom Scheerer of East Hampton, and Joe and Nancy Scheerer’s children, Dan Scheerer of New Hampshire and Hillary Scheerer of Springs. Add to that mix Idoline Duke’s husband, Biddle, and their children, Ellie and Angie; Ms. Parkes’s sons Homer Parkes and Haley Parkes and Homer’s daughter, Desert; Ms. Lochrane’s children August and Sophie Whitney, and Dan Scheerer’s children, Austin, Jane, Andy, and Molly.
“It’s a story about what happens when an American family finds a special place and it becomes the family hub, but generations later the descendants just don’t (and can’t) belong in the neighborhood any longer,” Biddle Duke wrote in an email to The Star that was tinged with pragmatic resignation.
The house went into contract earlier this year and an estate sale emptied the wallpapered rooms of their contents. But, the sale fell through, allowing for “a bit more time in the house,” said Ms. Duke, a writer who covers art and spirituality. It is set to go back on the market today through Sotheby’s.
The thought of the house sitting empty all summer was too sad to bear, she said, so she asked a few of her artistic friends if they would collaborate in hosting an artsy event at the house. Word soon spread through her community of friends and family acquaintances and about five weeks ago, Tough Porch crystalized. Incidentally, its name dates back to a time before Ms. Duke was born, when a family member walked out onto the porch overlooking the ocean, and found a group of relatives sipping cocktails and gossiping unsparingly.
Over Saturday and Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., a string of participatory events unfolded: a conscious movement dance class, led by Ms. Duke’s aunt Jane Parkes. Mister Softee rolled in. There was a drum circle and primal singing and sound making. Tarot card readings by Alejandra Villegas, whom Ms. Duke met at Harvard Divinity School, were held in a room festooned in iridescent orange and red silks. And, of course, there was art everywhere — 40 artists (including Ms. Duke’s mother, Idoline Duke) with over 100 pieces of work on the walls and in the garden, all of which was for sale. Food and drink trucks provided sustenance for the revelers, and the local multimedia artist and musician Kai Parcher-Charles D.J.’d the party to a groovy close on Sunday night.
“It was a fantastical intersection of art, art appreciators, music, and community in a time warp 1960s vibe, so genuine and un-Hamptons, yet set in one of the most elite real estate locations,” said Holli Li, an Amagansett resident, who clearly felt the woozy rush of experiencing a rare, blissful moment when you truly forget the outside world. “I don’t know how they pulled it off but it was true magic and I loved it.”
Ms. Duke seemed to be in awe of a community that rallied to help her stage such a heartfelt goodbye. “We complain a lot out here. About the traffic and the mansions, and the whatever, the cost of living — and all that is super real — but there’s this beautiful core soul here that I love,” she said, pointing out that the breadth of artists represented spanned from the well-respected and established to recent college graduates.
Sutton Lynch, 23, had several photographs and a video installation at the event. In an email, he wrote: “I’m so grateful to be showing alongside such talented people; it’s rare that young artists get the opportunity to share our work, especially out here in the Hamptons. Tough Porch as a whole feels thoroughly grounded and genuine to the local landscape and ecology. . . . I really think we need more events like this. Throughout my life I’ve witnessed the people and landscape change and we’ve lost touch with our past. I think for the mental and physical health of our community we need to continue to honor that connection.”
Scott Bluedorn, a Southampton-born artist, grew up surfing alongside many Duke family members. “This show was absolutely amazing to be a part of and the energy was palpable. It felt like a block party of sorts that was once common here when Georgica was known as Coast Guard Beach and all of the artists and intelligentsia would gather for parties and soirées,” he said.
But how about Grandmother Scheerer — or Gaga as she was known — would she be proud that her beloved home received such a spirited sendoff?
“She would love it so much. She would be — she is — so happy,” said Ms. Duke. “She was incredibly spirited, incredibly fun, incredibly cultured. She loved art, loved a party, and would have loved that we’re still here getting every last drop out of the house. She would have been the number-one Instagram poster.”
