Esperanza has lamented the current lack of nightlife and dancing on the East End on numerous Our Hamptons podcasts. So we decided to transport ourselves and our audience back to the era of Saturday Night Fever, and disco itself. Even the high school had something called Bonac Bandstand, and in fact partied (dry of course) at the Mellow Mouth Disco at 44 Three Mile Harbor Road. As often happens on Our Hamptons, the history and tenants of the building over the past 100+ years became an integral pa...
May 06, 2024•39 min
The biggest single scene on the East End in the late 1970’s had to be Asparagus Beach in Amagansett, or what we refer to today as simply Atlantic Ave. Singles would stand around like upright stalks of Asparagus, to see and be seen. String bikinis ruled the day, as did groupers; not the fish, but the participants themselves who squeezed into rental share houses, predominately in Amagansett’s Beach Hampton neighborhood. A fun look back at an absolute moment in time where to be “Young in the Hampto...
Apr 22, 2024•34 min
Esperanza and Irwin hearken back to the days before 300 plus cable tv channels and numerous streaming options. If you're of a certain age, you remember channels 2 to 13, and possibly UHF. Rooftop antennas, tin foil on the rabbit ears. But eastern Long Island weren't getting TV out of NYC. Apparently, those signals did not travel effectively west to east. Rather, channels out of Hartford, New Haven and Providence were the only game in town, and not all to clear either. A fun look back at an era w...
Apr 08, 2024•34 min
Esperanza and Irwin welcome the filmmaker Joanne Roberts to discuss The Bonackers Project. The loss of the commercial fishing industry on the east end has been well documented. Overreaching government intrusion, onerous regulations and a powerful sports fishing lobby, combined with ever increasing house prices damaged an industry whose legacy dates back hundreds of years. Joanne shares the stories, and the challenges the remaining fisherman and baymen face, and the timetable for the film's relea...
Mar 25, 2024•37 min
Esperanza and Irwin discuss a time when unspoiled Lazy Point was an industrial zone unto itself, with multiple fish factories operating. They even had their own LIRR Train Station for the employees to arrive there from points west. It was seemingly the perfect place for an industry that generated some awful smells from the factories. But with its isolated location it really wasn't bothering anyone. Until it was.
Mar 11, 2024•30 min
Esperanza and Irwin discuss the storied history and many lives of the most prominent commercial address in East Hampton, if not the entire East End: One Main Street. Perched on the most prominent location in the Village, the northwestern corner of Newtown Lane and Main Street, the tenants, and the stories speak metaphorically to all the changes in East Hampton over the past hundred years.
Feb 26, 2024•40 min
Esperanza and Irwin welcome artist Mike Solomon. Mike had an extraordinary childhood, growing up as the son of Syd and Annie Solomon. Syd was part of the Ab-Ex movement, and while he was a painter of great renown, the salons Annie hosted in her home were legendary. Mike, who is an important painter in his own right, shares the stories of what went on in the East Hampton in 1960's and 70's East Hampton.
Feb 12, 2024•41 min
Esperanza and Irwin continue the virtual road trip with the travel writer Horace Sutton, and the photographer Toni Frissell. We enter East Hampton Town, with stops and conversations about Out Of This World Restaurant in Wainscott, The Hedges Inn and Maidstone Arms. Not to mention the Amagansett Windmill House, rented by Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller to escape the paparazzi!
Jan 29, 2024•36 min
Esperanza and Irwin
Jan 15, 2024•40 min
Esperanza and Irwin have talked of many grand estates on the East End; the Bell Estate, Bayberryland and the Dunes come to mind. Fordune certainly has its place in this conversation. Ford methodically acquired 235 acres including significant oceanfront to construct the 16000 square foot manse. Sadly, Ford's marriage to Anne McDonnell Ford ended in divorce, and she was awarded Fordune in the settlement. In 1975 Anne sold the estate to Italian financier Carlo Traglio. He paid the bargain price of ...
Jan 01, 2024•34 min
Esperanza and Irwin discuss the ongoing metamorphosis of our downtowns with veteran Commercial Realtor Hal Zwick. Is the homogenization of our downtown districts mimicking a worldwide pattern of sameness? Is Main Street Southampton/ East Hampton really that different from Beverly Hills, London, or Singapore? Hal describes how the vibrancy of Sag Harbor's downtown as compared to both East Hampton and Southampton was the foresight of installing a sewage system allowing for more wet uses. While the...
Dec 18, 2023•35 min
Esperanza and Irwin discuss the parallel histories of two of the East End's most beautiful waterfront communities: Barnes Landing and Bay Point. Helen Codling Halstead developed both, inheriting the land after the untimely death of her father. Helen had grand plans for both: rows of shops on Quality Row in Barnes Landing, and a waterfront dock and marina at Bay Point, neither of which ever happened. l
Dec 04, 2023•40 min
Esperanza and Irwin transport you back in time to an off season Bridgehampton and Sagaponack. Some of the literary giants of the 20th century, Salter,Matthiessen, Capote, Vonnegut and others decamped here. The solitude, and yes, the sheer affordability of this bygone era inspired some of the greatest literary minds to produce their greatest work, often capping it off with a nightcap at Bobby Vans.
Nov 20, 2023•36 min
Esperanza and Irwin both have a connection to Longhouse; Esperanza is Head of Education and Community Engagement while Irwin has been a Docent. Sure, Longhouse is a stunning physical property; 12 acres of gardens, pond, sculpture. But the true story of Longhouse is Jack Lenor Larsen, a 20th century visionary. Jack purchased the property, a former potato field of flat land completely overgrown with bramble, invasive plants and poison ivy. Jack's ability to conceptualize this transformation from a...
Nov 06, 2023•39 min
Esperanza and Irwin have a special visit with Charlie Tupper. The Tupper's presence at Towd Point started in the early 1920's. Charlie's grandfather (Frank Edwin Tupper) bought the property on Davis Creek in about 1917 or 1918 . The land reminded him of his native Nova Scotia. When he bought it, the property cost $7500. The house, initially called "Ramblers Cottage" for the rambling roses growing along side, was built in about 1907 , along with several other large "cottages" along the bluff on D...
Oct 23, 2023•42 min
Esperanza and Irwin were surprised to learn Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis' formative years were spent on eastern Long Island. Born in 1929 at Southampton Hospital, the center of the Bouvier family life was at "Lasata", (meaning place of peace) the Further Lane estate adjacent to the Maidstone Club, where the family also had a cabana. When the Bouvier's first arrived in East Hampton in 1912, the place was far simpler than neighboring Southampton, a landscape primarily dominated by farm field...
Oct 09, 2023•38 min
Esperanza and Irwin look back on the way Real Estate was bought and sold on eastern Long Island, in the not too distant past. Before the internet, before Zillow, before Redfin, before Real Estate firms with national and world wide presence. As recently as the early 1970's, there were not many more realtors then in the early 1950's, and many were part timers. Sure, there was money to be made in the summer colonies, but those markets were dominated by Lyda Barclay in Southampton, and Condie "Boots...
Sep 25, 2023•32 min
Esperanza and Irwin look back on the history of Beach Hampton. In the 1920's, Richard B. Allen began accumulating land in Amagansett along the oceanfront, from Beach Lane to Napeague Lane. By 1936, the RB Allen corporation owned 200 acres, and began developing a community for the middle class, called Beach Hampton. Ultimately, Alfred Scheffer became Beach Hampton's resident architect, designing houses from 560 to 920 feet, with an eye on simplicity, and cost. Amenities were non existent. We talk...
Sep 11, 2023•38 min
Esperanza and Irwin welcome Brenda Sinclair, third generation Hampton Bays resident, and executive director of the HB Historical Society. We admitted to being a bit mystified by this hamlet, and Brenda's hometown stories and memories brings it all together. Brenda tells us about the storied history and many lives of the Canoe Place Inn, now in the process of being reinvented again.
Aug 28, 2023•35 min
Esperanza and Irwin tell the story of East Hampton's grandest estate in the early 20th century. Frank Wiborg was a self made millionaire by age 40, establishing offices worldwide for the distribution of ink and lithograph products. Originally summer renters in Amagansett and East Hampton, Wiborg ultimately became a land baron, with holdings encompassing and astonishing 600 acres. In 1909, Wiborg hired the renowned architect Grosvernor Atterbury to design The Dunes, a 30 room stucco mansion that ...
Aug 14, 2023•35 min•Season 3Ep. 34
Esperanza and Irwin explore Riverhead's changes when the Tanger Mall arrived in the 1990s. Riverhead still lays claim as the Suffolk County Seat, despite most government departments moving to office space up island in Hauppague. Did Tanger, and the subsequent onset of big box retailers and chain stores help to offset that loss at the expense of ushering in a more suburban rather than rural feel for the community? For those on the North and South Fork's, the convenience of having these options wi...
Jul 31, 2023•38 min
Esperanza and Irwin look back at the three lives of Bayberry Land in Southampton. In 1916, the banker Charles Sabin and his wife, Pauline Morton Smith Sabin purchased these 314 acres for a country home, naming it after the low growing shrub prevalent on the east end. The estate comprised 8 buildings, including a manor house, garage with chauffer's apartment, gatehouse, caretakers cottage, hunting stable...you get the idea. The Sabin's lifestyle was as grand as the setting, entertaining New York'...
Jul 17, 2023•35 min
Esperanza and Irwin
Jul 03, 2023•40 min
Esperanza and Irwin pride themselves on digging deep, and some of the episodes of Our Hamptons has been a bit off radar.
Jun 19, 2023•37 min
Esperanza and Irwin explore the rich history of the Swamp, the iconic gay nightclub. From the time Bill Higgins opened the Swamp in 1977 and its sister restaurant The Annex next door, he made his policy clear. This is a gay male club said the sign outside the door. The writer Steven Gaines said "Higgins thought having women around ruined things". But the history of gay nightlife on eastern Long Island goes back even further. Gay friendly night clubs in Wainscott dated back to the 1940's, includi...
Jun 05, 2023•33 min
Esperanza and Irwin discuss the multiple lives of the Sea Spray Inn. The Sea Spray's early days in the 19th century on Main Street, East Hampton led to its subsequent move in 1902 to the dunes near Main Beach, as the private home of E.D. Terbell. The Sea Spray's heyday was from the 1940's to 1970's. The Sea Spray had a capacity of 125 guests served by a staff of 55. Rooms went from spare to breathtaking, with rates from $15 to $100 a day by the 1960's, three square meals a day included! A fire o...
May 22, 2023•39 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Esperanza and Irwin welcome the writer Tim Ferguson for a free wheeling dialogue on all things East End. Tim's resume includes being a columnist and op-ed editor at the Wall Street Journal and editor for Forbes Asia. Impressive as his body of work has been, it is his present day writing and blog posts specific to eastern Long Island that caught our attention. We've actually touched on some of Tim's articles in past episodes of Our Hamptons, including the 50 Year Anniversary of Bridgehampton Comm...
May 08, 2023•35 min
Esperanza and Irwin discuss the fascinating story of the Montauk Shores Condominium. From its beginning in the 1940's as a campground on the ocean, the evolution of Montauk Shores is yet another metaphor for eastern Long Island becoming the Hamptons. A trailer park overlooking the Atlantic, and adjacent to iconic Ditch Plains, Montauk Shores was within reach of everyone. With amenities like a pool, clubhouse, basketball, shuffleboard, Montauk Shores evoked a bygone era. But like all good things,...
Apr 24, 2023•36 min
Esperanza and Irwin go back 50 years to what may have been the brouhaha of the century on eastern Long Island. The proposed Highway Bypass was to go north of Route 27 through North Sea, Watermill, Bridgehampton, Sagaponack, Wainscott, East Hampton and ultimately ending in eastern Amagansett. "Build it and they shall come", was one perspective, saying traffic will be even worse. Farmland would be decimated. In a 1974 letter to the East Hampton Star, Tom Twomey, the Chair of the Halt The Highway c...
Apr 10, 2023•35 min
Esperanza and Irwin can barely contain their excitement for this podcast! Elizabeth Barlow Rogers is best known for her work as a driving force behind the resurrection of Central Park. 1970's New York City was a time of strife. Budget woes, crime, graffiti, defined NYC during this era, and the iconic Daily New headline, Ford to City: Drop Dead said it all. Central Park was in Ms. Barlow Rogers words, dying. In 1979, then Mayor Koch appointed her the first Central Park Administrator, and in 1980,...
Mar 27, 2023•40 min
