East Hampton to Purchase Historic Gardiner Homestead

Photo: Courtesy Tyler Mattson Douglas Elliman

On Thursday, the East Hampton Town Board agreed to purchase the Gardiner homestead at 36 James Lane in the Village of East Hampton for $9.6 million it has been reported in 27East. The 3.67 acres property with a cottage was listed for sale last fall with the brokerage firm Douglas Elliman for the first time in more than 300 years. The property has been in the Gardiner family the entire time.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said the board unanimously approved the purchase and that a contract of sale has been signed. The requisite due diligence will be performed by the town and if there are no encumbrances to the title it will be transferred to the town’s land management and stewardship plan.

The purchase will be funded with revenue from the Town of East Hampton’s Community Preservation Fund. The news of the purchase was greeted with enthusiasm. “Its the best thing for everyone,” said Tyler Mattson, the listing broker at Douglas Elliman.

The Village of East Hampton’s Historic Preservation Adviser Robert Hefner said the property would be owned by the Town of East Hampton, which would assign the management of the property to the Village of East Hampton. The arrangement would be similar to agreements in place for the Thomas Moran house, on Main Street, and the old Mark R Buick dealership, which was at the corner of Accabonac Road and Route 27.

Mr. Hefner said the plan is to restore the cottage and home lot and preserve the open space, which adjoins a 1.3-acre agricultural reserve already owned by the village. The Gardiner homestead will then comprise more than five acres of open space across from the South End Cemetery and down the block from Mulford Farm.

The Gardiner homestead is being sold by Olney Mairs Gardiner, a descendent of Lion Gardiner, who established the first English settlement in New York, in 1648. According to an article in The New York Times last fall, the parcel is one of the last family-owned parcels of original lots which lined the mile-long common green and made up the colony’s voting populace when the village was first established 366 years ago.

Mr. Gardiner, a 71-year-old retired patent lawyer, told The New York Times that he inherited the property from his uncle, Winthrop Gardiner Jr., a test pilot who was married to Sonja Henie, the Olympic figure skater, and worked for Howard Hughes. Mr. Gardiner and his wife, Karie, moved to East Hampton from Florida and lived in the house from 1994 until 2007, before moving to 48 James Lane, another, smaller, Gardiner family home that belonged to his grandfather.

Originally, the plan had been for Mr. Gardiner to subdivide the property into three so that each of his children might have a lot. Village preservationists dissuaded him from pursuing that project and so he decided to sell the property and provide them with the money in lieu of the land. He said he had reservations about selling the property but wanted to put his estate into order.

The listing for the property describes it as having two houses adjacent to the Gardiner Windmill. The windmill, which is also known as the Pantigo Windmill, was built by James Lyon Gardiner in about 1804. It was deeded to the village and restored at a cost of nearly $1 million in 1996. The front house dates to the 18th century and has five bedrooms and three baths. The rear house was built as a garage and staff quarters. The asking price was originally $12.95 million.