The phenomenon we know as "The Hamptons"'the epitome of high society, leisure, and affluence, the place of worldly glamour and every pleasure, natural and unnatural, that money can buy'began as a group of Puritan villages along Long Island's south shore before it was discovered at the end of the 19th century by artists and the fashionably rich.
The earliest social Hamptonites, descendents of colonial aristocracy, such as New York's Livingstons, Delaware's du Ponts, and the Mellons of Pittsburgh'as well as several of Manhattan's most successful bankers, lawyers, and brokers'mingled with the colorful characters of the art colonies. Here the rich built fashionable and expansive summer houses where they enjoyed carefree recreation, artistic endeavors, and elegant social occasions.
Houses of the Hamptons, 1880-1930, explores more than 30 houses, many designed by some of America's leading architects, such as McKim, Mead & White, John Russell Pope, and Harrie T. Lindeberg. Others were conceived by less well-known but equally gifted designers, such as Edward Purcel Mellon, Isaac H. Green, and John Custis Lawrence. Less enamored with the showy grandeur typical of Newport's golden age, the wealthy Hamptonites built summer places that were an ensemble of exceptional architectural variety and achievement. Here, American Colonial, half-timbered Tudor, and red brick Georgian vied with shingled cottages and Mediterranean fantasy.
Houses of the Hamptons is illustrated with more than 300 photographs and floor plans, including many rare archival images not seen in years as well as some newly commissioned for this project. Authors Gary Lawrance and Anne Surchin lead the reader on a tour of a bygone era when couples in white flannel played tennis or croquet on verdant lawns or when America's aristocracy flocked to watch the students of William Merritt Chase's Shinnecock Art School at their paintings.
Also included are biographical sketches of individual architects, a comprehensive bibliography, and a portfolio of some 40 grand residences of this beautiful and unsurpassed vacation enclave.
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