East Hampton Historical Society Presents Thanksgiving Weekend House and Garden Tour

The East Hampton Historical Society House & Garden Tour returns Thanksgiving weekend with the opportunity to go inside five private homes, including the carriage house of the fabled Grey Gardens in Georgica.

The 39th annual tour kicks off with a cocktail party on Friday, November 29, at the Maidstone Club from 6 to 8 p.m. The tour itself takes place on Saturday, November 30, from 1 to 4:30 p.m.

The Grey Gardens carriage house was built the same year as Grey Gardens, 1896, and both were designed by the same architect, Joseph Greenleaf Thorp. According to the historical society, both were purchased in 1924 as one parcel by Phelan Beale for his new bride, Edith Bouvier Beale, later known as “Big” Edie. After their divorce in 1946, the carriage house, on 1.1 acres, was sold off in 1952. The current owners purchased the carriage house in 2018 and updated it for the 21st century.

The tour will also include The Pink House on Egypt Lane, aka the George Eldredge House, built in the Colonial style by East Hampton’s premier builder of the summer colony and self-taught architect in 1876. It’s been renovated by designer Steven Gambrel for its present owners.

In Springs, a house the historical society dubs an “Oasis of Chic” is hidden down a long driveway, with “magnificent gardens” on 3.2 acres of land, including a Cleveland pear allée and a gazebo of curved logs and branches. The house was built in 1998 and has been refashioned in the last two years by current owner Craig Socia, a landscape designer who showed off his creative talents in the interior décor as well.

A English Tudor-style historic house off East Hampton’s Main Street, the Samuel Buell House, is accompanied by a horse chestnut tree that may be the oldest on the East Coast. And rounding out the tour is the “Hexagonal House,” an Amagansett beach house belonging to interior designer David Netto, built in 1980 and comprehensively renovated with Meyer Davis Studio in 2012.

Tickets to the Maidstone cocktail party are $275 each, which includes entry to the tour the following day. Tickets to the self-guided tour only are $95 in advance of Thanksgiving and $120 on November 29 and 30. Tickets can be purchased via easthamptonhistory.org or 631-324-6850, or in person at Clinton Academy. Tour programs can be picked up starting at 10 a.m. on Friday, November 29, at Clinton Academy, 151 Main Street, East Hampton.