The Hamptons refers specifically to several villages and hamlets in the towns of Southampton and East Hampton on the east end of Long Island, New York. These townships occupy the South Fork of Long Island. The Hamptons form a popular seaside resort, one of the historical Summer Colonies of the American Northeast. The Montauk Branch of the Long Island Railroad, Montauk Highway, and the Hampton Jitney provide connections to the rest of Long Island and to New York City, while ferries connect North Haven and Montauk to Shelter Island and Connecticut.
The Hamptons include the hamlets and villages in the town of Southampton:
West Hampton Dunes (village)
West Hampton Dunes is located on a barrier island in the Town of Southampton. The barrier island was part of Fire Island until a Nor'easter in 1931 split the island creating Moriches Inlet. The inlet created a geographic oddity whereby the Town of Brookhaven actually has jurisdiction on land immediately west of West Hampton Dunes although Brookhaven land access to it involves a nearly 20 mile drive through Southampton.
Westhampton
Westhampton is in the Town of Southampton.
Westhampton Beach (village)
Westhampton Beach is a village in the town of Southampton
Quogue
Quogue (pronounced kwog) is an incorporated village in Southampton, Suffolk County, New York on the South Shore of Long Island.
East Quogue
East Quogue is in the Town of Southampton.
Hampton Bays
The hamlet was settled in 1740 as "Good Ground", which became the main hamlet of eleven in the immediate area. The area where Main Street, also known as Montauk Highway, is located today, was the approximate area of the original hamlet known as Good Ground.
There were ten other hamlets in the area. The other hamlets in the area were called Canoe Place, East Tiana, Newtown, Ponquogue, Rampasture, Red Creek, Squiretown, Southport, Springville, and West Tiana. Most of these hamlets were settled by one or two families and had their own school house. Many of the names from the former hamlets are still featured as local street names today.
As a result of the growth of the surrounding hamlets and villages in the Hamptons and increased tourism from New York City, the eleven hamlets, although generally called "Good Ground" collectively by the early part of the 20th century, amalgamated under the name "Hampton Bays" in 1922. The motive behind the name change was for the hamlet to benefit from the "Hamptons" trade that the hamlet's neighbors were experiencing.
Shinnecock Hills
Shinnecock Hills is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is the home of a leading golf club, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. This is the highest point on Long Island's east end. At its highest point it is the only place on Long Island, where two shores are visible. Many court battles were fought: this being an authentic and large ancient native North American burial ground. American Indians Tribes people were taking claim to the top of Shinnecock Hills, also used by Dutch and English sailors as a whaleing look-out station. Locals Proclaim good spirits of days gone by still enchant the region.
Shinnecock Hills is in the Town of Southampton.
Tuckahoe
Southampton (village)
Southampton is a village in Suffolk County, New York, USA. The village is named after the Earl of Southampton. The Village of Southampton is in the southeast part of the county in the Town of Southampton.
Southampton is arguably the commercial center of the southern "fork" of Long Island, serves as the home base for several region-wide businesses and has the area's only hospital. It is part of the summer colony known as The Hamptons, and is generally considered one of the area's two most prestigious communities. A large number of wealthy and influential people have homes in the "estate section" of the Village, the area immediately north of the Atlantic ocean front. The presence of this group provides Southampton with its reputation for affluence and exclusivity.
The Village of Southampton, settled in 1640 and incorporated as a village in 1894, historically began with a small group of English Puritans who set sail from Lynn, Massachusetts and landed on June 12, 1640 at what is now known as Conscience Point. It is the oldest English settlement in the state of New York and is named after the British Earl of Southampton.
The early settlers, with the help of a resident Shinnecock Indian guide, were led over an old woodland trail that is now North Sea Road to an ideal spot for their first settlement. There, at the head of what today is Old Town Pond, they constructed their first homes. The Shinnecock Indian Reservation, established in 1701, is the oldest Native American reservation in the United States.
A property called the Halsey House was a homestead by pioneer Thomas Halsey in 1640. A rare "first period" house was built in 1660 when Main Street, in the pioneer hamlet of Southampton, was first laid out. Its owner, Thomas Halsey, was one of the original families who bought property from the Shinnecocks in 1640. It is one of the oldest English-type frame houses in the state.
The Shinnecock tribe welcomed the arrival of the white settlers in 1640 and not only gave them land to live on, "Olde Towne", but also shared with the settlers their knowledge of planting corn and fertilizing it with fish, growing crops, digging clams and scallops from nearby bays and trapping game. During the eighteenth century and nineteenth century, fishing, farming (especially Long Island Potatoes and the local sweet corn) and duck raising were the predominant industries.
Water Mill
Water Mill is considering incorporating as a village following the unsuccessful attempt by Dunehampton, New York to incorporate. Dunehampton's incorporation would have cut Water Mill off from the Atlantic Ocean beaches. Sagaponack, New York incorporated for a similar reason.
Noyack
Noyack is located on the South Fork of Long Island in the Town of Southampton. The community is at the edge of Noyack Bay.
North Haven
The Village of North Haven is in the Town of Southampton.
Bridgehampton
Bridgehampton is in the Town of Southampton.
Shortly after the founding of Southampton in 1640, settlers began to move east to the area known by the Shinnecock Indians as Sagaponack and Mecox. At the head of Sagg Pond the hardy Pilgrims established a settlement called Bullhead, later renamed Bridgehampton—after the bridge built across the pond. Sagg Bridge was built in 1686 by Ezekiel Sandford. The Bridge was the link between Mecox and Sagaponack and gave this locality its name of Bridgehampton.
Sagaponack (village)
Sagaponack is a village in the town of Southampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The village incorporated on September 2, 2005, in the wake of the failed attempt by Dunehampton, New York to incorporate. Dunehampton's incorporation would have blocked Sagaponack from Atlantic Ocean beaches. The villages are seeking to address various beach issues including erosion arising from groynes at Georgica Pond in East Hampton village.
The name Sagaponack comes from the Shinnecock Indian Nation for "land of the big ground nuts." The big ground nuts were actually potatoes. Potato farming continued until late in the 20th century and many of the huge estates in the village were built on potato fields. Its first settler was Josiah Stanborough in 1656. The village was originally called Sagg.
Sag Harbor, just north of Sagaponack, is believed to have derived its name from the village. Another village further west was called Mecox. A village that formed a "bridge" between the two was called Bridgehampton, New York.
Sag Harbor (village, shared with East Hampton)
The Hamptons include the following hamlets and villages in the town of East Hampton:
Sag Harbor (village, shared with Southampton)
Sag Harbor is an incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York, United States.
The entire business district of the whaling port and writer's colony is listed as Sag Harbor Village District on the National Register of Historic Places.
Sag Harbor is about three fifths in Southampton and two fifths in East Hampton. The dividing line is Division Street which becomes Town Line Road just south of the village. Most of the defining landmarks of the village—including its Main Street, the Whalers Church, Jermain Library, Whaling Museum, the Old Burying Ground, Oakland Cemetery, Mashashimuet Park, and Otter Pond are all in Southampton. However, almost all the Bay Street marina complex at the foot of Main Street is in East Hampton as are the village's high school, the Sag Harbor State Golf Course, and the freed slave community of Eastville.
Wainscott
Wainscott is a place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet (unincorporated community) with the same name in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York on the South Shore of Long Island. Wainscott can be referred to as Midhampton although the name is not used locally.
Northwest Harbor
Northwest Harbor is a place named for the bay on the South Fork of Long Island connecting Sag Harbor, Shelter Island and East Hampton town to Gardiners Bay and the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay derives its name from being northwest of East Hampton village. The name Northwest Harbor is applied to the Northwest Woods neighborhood (sometimes shortened to simply Northwest) of the town of East Hampton. It is also applied to Northwest Landing at Northwest Creek (a salt water outlet from the inlet to the harbor) which was the first port for East Hampton and became a major whaling port in the late 1600s and early 1700s until it was replaced by Sag Harbor two miles to the west of the landing where the water was deeper. Ships of Sag Harbor must pass through Northwest Harbor at the Cedar Point Lighthouse in order to reach Gardiners Bay and the open ocean.
East Hampton (village)
The Village of East Hampton is an incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York within the Town of East Hampton, on the South Fork of eastern Long Island.
The village, part of The Hamptons, is a wealthy community known for its green farmland next to scenic beaches, and for its many famous residents.
Springs
Springs is roughly corresponding to the hamlet (unincorporated community) by the same name in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York on the South Fork of Long Island.
Springs is known in art circles as the cradle of the abstract expressionist movement. Artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, John Ferren, and Randy Rosenthal worked there. Many important writers live or have lived in or near Springs including Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, Philip Roth, Nora Ephron, and John Steinbeck.
Artists and writers were attracted to Springs because of its rural nature, despite being within 100 miles (160 km) of New York City, and because housing prices "north of the Montauk Highway" on the bay side of the East Hampton peninsula have traditionally been lower than those closer to the Atlantic Ocean.
This has created a blue collar neighborhood of people who support the mansions closer to the ocean. Locals are referred to as "Bonackers" which comes from Accabonac Harbor in Springs. East Hampton High School has adopted the Bonacker name for its sports teams.
The main roads connecting Springs to East Hampton are Springs-Fireplace Road, and Three Mile Harbor Road.
Amagansett
Amagansett roughly corresponds to the hamlet (unincorporated community) by the same name in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York on the South Shore of Long Island.
The area is sometimes referred to as Skimhampton. However this specifically refers to the area south of the Montauk Highway along Skimhampton Road. The artist Childe Hassam, who lived on Egypt Lane in East Hampton village, painted the area during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Portions of Skimhampton and the area on the northwest side of Amagansett hamlet are within the census-designated place of East Hampton North.
Amagansett derives its name from the Montaukett name for "place of good water" from a water source near what today is Indian Wells beach.
Montauk
Montauk roughly corresponds to the hamlet (unincorporated community) with the same name located in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States on the South Shore of Long Island.
Strategically located at the tip of the South Fork peninsula it has been used as an Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force base. Located 20 miles (32 km) off the Connecticut coast, it is home to the largest commercial and recreational fishing fleet in New York State.
The Montauk Point Light was the first lighthouse in New York state and is the fourth oldest active lighthouse in the United States.
Montauk is a major tourist destination and it boasts six state parks. It is particularly famous for its fishing (claiming to have more world saltwater fishing records than any other port in the world) and surfing. The Deep Hollow Ranch is the oldest cattle ranch in the United States.