Once-Beleaguered Howard Street House Now Restored

The July 21, 2022, Sag Harbor Express headline about a beleaguered Howard Street house was “Historic House Waits for Savior.”

The circa-1824 captain’s house had been sitting unsecured, with missing windows in the foundation, for about three years as the renovation and restoration project was halted due to infighting among the investors, and the structure was deteriorating. Now, two years later, the house is saved, and a careful rehabilitation is wrapping up.

Jason Zimmerman, the owner of Bridgehampton Equities and Bridgehampton Custom Builders, purchased the house and set about restoring it and updating it with modern amenities.

“I wanted to be involved in a project of historical value, and I wanted to do something in Sag Harbor,” Zimmerman said during a recent interview.

For 10 years, his office has been in Southampton Village, where he worked on the restoration of 40 Bowden Square after longtime tenant The Publick House moved out and restaurateur Ian Duke moved in.

Just as 40 Bowden Square gave him the opportunity to delve into Southampton Village’s history, 27 Howard Street was his chance to explore Sag Harbor Village history. And though others had begun the work of restoring the house, because the project was abandoned for several years, he essentially had to go back to square one.

“It was in disrepair. We kind of had to start from scratch,” Zimmerman recalled. “So even though it was existing, every inch of that home was redone, resecured.”

Because the house is a contributing structure in Sag Harbor Village’s historic district, Zimmerman was limited in what he could do.

“We weren’t allowed to do much. We couldn’t do any dormers, so we took the attic and made that the entire master,” he said. He also added two gas fireplaces. “We took what we had and maximized what we could do.”

The house is 3,100 square feet on 0.12 acre and could not be moved or expanded.

“I didn’t change the footprint,” Zimmerman said. “I meticulously put the house back together, inch by inch, which was very difficult to do based on the current footprint. But we incorporated a lot of history in that house.”

During the sitework, ballast stone from whaling ships was discovered, and that was cut and made into steps, which Zimmerman said are now a conversation piece. He also reported finding old bottles with the corks still in them.

The original framing remains intact.

“We didn’t take down anything. It’s almost like we had to frame a house inside a house,” he said. “So we had to keep a lot of the old wood on the shell of it, and we had to restructure all the framing inside of that framing.”

The new roof and siding are cedar shake, in keeping with the materials that would have been used when it was originally built.

What passersby won’t see is that the house was reinforced with steel.

“We brought all modern amenities to that home, but still giving it the historical look,” Zimmerman said.

The house has “invisible” speakers, a whole-house generator, smart home technology, central vacuum and a water filtration system. The floors are white oak and the hardware is polished nickel.

The lower level has 10-foot ceilings.

“The ceiling heights don’t make you feel like you’re in a lower level,” Zimmerman said.

A shed was converted into a pool house with a sauna, kitchenette, bathroom, indoor shower and outdoor shower, and a basement was added for the mechanicals.

A brand new plunge pool has an attached jacuzzi with a waterfall system.

Zimmerman said he enjoyed learning about what the community was like back when the house was built and the whaling history from that era.

He noted that the harbor had been dredged and the dirt was moved to Howard Street, and this house is on the highest point in that area, so it doesn’t get wet like low lying areas.

The house is listed with Ellie Hunter of Compass for $6.5 million.