In East Hampton, Former Montaukett Home Gets A Second Chance

BY CAREY LONDON

A fragile cottage with roots to the Montaukett Indian Nation has now been marked for preservation. The early-19th-century East Hampton home is profoundly worn and weathered and in great need of protection and rehabilitation.

On March 3, the Suffolk County Legislature approved a resolution proposed by Legislator Jay Schneiderman to transfer the cottage and its 1.7-acre parcel to the Town of East Hampton for preservation.

“This has some interesting history with me,” Mr. Schneiderman explained on Wednesday, March 11. “The first time the county gave it to the town, I was town supervisor in 2002.”

The county had acquired the parcel due to tax default that year and gave it to the town to use for affordable housing. There was a stipulation, however, that if the parcel was not used for affordable housing, it would be returned to the county.

More than 10 years later, with the help of historians and preservation advocates, town officials determined that the property was historically significant and therefore not suitable for affordable housing. The town requested a revised transfer from the county, this time to use the property for historic purposes.

James Devine, a descendant of the Montauketts, submitted a report to the legislature proposing preservation and restoration of the former Fowler home, which is in East Hampton’s historically native American and African-American neighborhood called Freetown.

“The East Hampton community has a unique opportunity to preserve a house of paramount importance to the town’s history and to the minority history that has never been properly told,” Mr. Devine wrote. “This opportunity will not come again. We cannot allow this important site to vanish without every effort to preserve it.”

Located on Springs-Fireplace Road, the cottage was originally owned by George and Sarah Fowler, Montauketts who lived in it from around 1885 until the 1930s. The cottage remained in the Fowler family long after the couple died.

“The last person to live in the house was George and Sarah’s grandson, Leonard Horton. He died in the early 1980s,” Mr. Devine explained.

The two-story saltbox is believed to have been built in the 19th century. The homes in Freetown at the time were extremely modest, especially when compared to today’s standards. “They’re small houses with gable pitched roofs; they’re the simplest form of house,” explained Robert Hefner, an East Hampton historic preservation consultant. “Some of these houses were probably one room, with a little loft.”

The Fowler house is a little larger, with a living room, kitchen and one bedroom on the first floor, and a small bedroom and storage area on the second floor. “The house’s only indoor plumbing is the sink. … It was heated by a stove in the living room and the kitchen stove,” Mr. Devine wrote in his report.

Freetown is believed to have been established as a community for freed slaves in the early 19th century, according to Mr. Hefner. As the story goes, the affluent John Lion Gardiner, at the time the proprietor of nearby Gardiners Island, freed his family’s slaves and sent them to Freetown. New York abolished slavery in 1827.

Although Freetown has been its home for more than 100 years, the Fowler house is believed to originally have been located in Montauk. In the late 1800s, members of the Montaukett Indian Nation moved to Freetown thanks to the swift legal maneuverings of a Brooklyn financier who wanted to establish a summer resort for his wealthy friends in Montauk.

“It’s possible that Arthur Benson relocated the Montaukett Indians from Montauk to Freetown,” said Mr. Hefner. Negotiations between Mr. Benson and the Montauketts ultimately resulted in the tribal members losing their rights to the land they had been living on for generations in Montauk. “He persuaded them to move to East Hampton, and it’s possible he moved some of their houses,” Mr. Hefner said of Arthur Benson. The Fowlers’ home may have been among them.

Under Mr. Schneiderman’s resolution, East Hampton will designate the house a historical landmark and develop a long-term plan for its preservation in coordination with the East Hampton Historical Society. That plan will have to involve rescue and restoration, since after many years of neglect it is, quite literally, falling apart.

“The truth is, the structure is in terrible condition,” said East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell. “It would take quite an effort to preserve this important part of our history.”

“It’s going to need work through the years,” Mr. Schneiderman confirmed. “It’ll take money to protect it.”