Amagansett Village Improvement Society Turns 100

For 100 years, the Amagansett Village Improvement Society has been quietly sprucing up the hamlet in ways that can often go unnoticed to the casual passersby or harried local.

Geraniums appear in sidewalk planters each year, the trees on “the lanes” are trimmed into an arching canopy of leaves, the hamlet’s flagpole — a wooden former ship’s mast — gets a fresh protective coat of white paint, American flags are hoisted.

With no municipal workforce of its own — the hamlet having never lived up to the ambition of the group’s name —such duties are left to the volunteers of the AVIS. And they have delivered for a century.

“We do a lot of things that everyone assumes the town does,” said Michael Cinque, a member of the AVIS board and owner of Amagansett Wine & Spirits. “The people passing through and some of the people who even live here, I don’t think they have a clue that it’s this handful of volunteers that do all this. We’ve been doing it quietly for a long time.”

For 100 years, to be exact, as of next week — the anniversary of when the group held it’s first meeting.

The list of the chores that AVIS keeps on its fridge is long for a group populated by a handful of mostly retirees: the planters and memorial triangles, the repainting of the flagpole, the upkeep and management of the two tennis courts, caring for the tiny historic train depot building, welcome signs and benches — and, of course, the care for the more than 1,000 trees the group has kept trim and tidy for a century. There is also a scholarship program for any Amagansett School alum who graduates from East Hampton High School — the only application requirement: a “What I Love About Amagansett” essay.

It wasn’t until 50 years after that first meeting that Joan Tulp attended one. But she’s been attending them for all of the 50 years since.

“When I came to Amagansett, the first day I got off the train, it was love at first sight,” the committee’s elder stateswoman and co-chair said. “Nothing has changed, so keeping it beautiful just comes naturally.”

Like so many celebrations, the pandemic is keeping the AVIS from holding any event to commemorate its centennial milestone on September 21 of this year, but the group has plans for a celebration of the 101st anniversary next year.

The AVIS funds its activities through the fees charged for the use of the two tennis courts and a lone summer fundraiser party — last year, with the party canceled, a member donated a classic car for sale — and the support of members and neighbors.

Ms. Tulp said the centennial is for the whole hamlet’s benefit, as the AVIS is in general.

“The people of Amagansett are so very generous to us,” Ms. Tulp said. “We couldn’t do it without the people of Amagansett. It’s such a sweet little town. It’s getting bigger, but it’s still the same darling little place and the desire to keep it beautiful has stayed exactly the same.”