Southampton History Museum Hosts Outsider's View Garden Tour

The Southampton History Museum presents the second edition of the Outsider’s View garden tour, an event introduced last year as a COVID-safe alternative to the traditional Insider’s View house tour, on the afternoon of Saturday, September 11.

The self-paced garden tour includes six stops from South Main Street to Gin Lane. “This tree-lined thoroughfare boasts a treasured collection of distinguished historic homes and gardens, and for centuries it has played a central role in connecting our village’s downtown to its farms and beaches,” the event announcement reads.

Event co-chair Averitt Buttry said on Tuesday that, in a first, the tour stops are all on the same walkable route.

“This year we’re trying to encourage people to make it more of a walking tour, so we’ve called it a South Main stroll,” he said. “People can bike or walk as they please and zigzag down Main Street toward Gin Lane.”

The stops include a mix of private homes and public spaces. “We have a good mix of houses,” Mr. Buttry said.

The Edwin Post House predates 1858 and was built for the prominent local Post family, according to the museum, and the house’s namesake was clerk to the proprietor trustees, “a powerful entity whose influence over the distribution of the land can hardly be exaggerated.” The house retains its original front entrance with transom and sidelights.

Penrhyn Cottage was built for Judge William B. Hornblower and his wife. Later owners of the home, Dr. and Mrs. Eric McDonald, commissioned Marian Coffin, one of America’s first professional female landscape architects, to design the cottage’s gardens.

The museum says the Thanet House was built for T.G. Thomas, son of Southampton summer colony founder Dr. Theodore Gaillard Thomas, in 1913. The brick dwelling was designed by architect Samuel Edson Gage in the Dutch style but about 10 years later was remodeled into the craftsman style.

Wooldon Manor is an oceanfront English Tudor residence with formal gardens and a greenhouse. It was built for the family of Jesse Woolworth Donahue, the daughter of F.W. Woolworth, founder of the original five-and-dime.

Rounding out the tour are Saint Andrew’s Dune Church, a former life-saving station at the foot of Lake Agawam, and the Southampton History Museum’s own Thomas Halsey Homestead, built in 1683.

The tour runs from 1 to 4 p.m. and concludes with a champagne reception, featuring hors d’oeuvres and sweets prepared by Sant Ambroeus restaurant, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Admission is $150 in advance or $175 on the day of the event. Call 631-283-2494 or visit southamptonhistory.org. Tickets may be picked up or purchased on the day of the tour as early as 10:30 am at the Rogers Mansion, 17 Meeting House Lane, Southampton.