East Hampton Historical Society: History Matters | Winter Lecture Series | Plans for Mulford Farmhouse …

December 2023

History Matters

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Letter from the Director

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Dear Friend,

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Since starting as the Executive Director two years ago, I’ve had the honor of stewarding East Hampton’s cultural heritage. During the last two years, the Historical Society has managed the preservation and interpretation of six historic sites and 20,000 artifacts, presented exhibits, walking tours, lecture series, and other public programs, and served over 5,000 students with educational programming.

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Even though I’m “from away,” as our Town &Village Historian Hugh King has described it, I appreciate how East Hampton’s history has given me roots in the community. And just in the last two years, I’ve witnessed so many ways that the past has inspired, excited, and connected people in East Hampton.

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Our history is vital. As historian David Thelen has described it, we need the past just like we need food and oxygen. It sustains us. It gives us a sense of identity and understanding about where we’ve come from and where we’re going.

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To continue this work of keeping the past present in East Hampton, I need your help. Without your support, our community cannot sustain its sense of place. Please make a gift to the East Hampton Historical Society today!

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Sincerely,

Steve Long, Executive Director

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MAKE A GIFT TODAY!

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Thank you to everyone who attended

our House & Garden Tour Benefit

It was a wonderful success!

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We are incredibly grateful to everyone who attended our 38th Annual “House & Garden Tour” fundraiser during Thanksgiving weekend, which was dedicated in memory of Joseph Aversano, the long-time Chair of the Tour.

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Thanks to the incredible generosity of our homeowners, the Tour featured five spectacular houses located in East Hampton Village and the Devon Colony. In addition to being great to look at, the houses all had fascinating histories. Tour patrons got the opportunity to walk through one of East Hampton’s first post offices and home of New York’s leading suffragette, visit two of the houses on “Soap Hill,” see the room that Big and Little Edie shared, and tour an art studio. Besides the five private homes, visitors toured the newly restored Dominy Shops Museum.

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Special thanks to Groundworks and Hamptons Cottages & Gardens for generously supporting the House & Garden Tour! We also appreciate the dozens of volunteers who staffed the houses during the Tour.

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Finally, we are especially grateful to our House & Garden Tour Committee: Co-Chairs Jim Blauvelt & Dale Leff, and Lys Marigold. They had big shoes to fill when Joseph Aversano passed away suddenly last June, and we are certain he would be proud!

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Photo Credit: Francis Fleetwood, Courtesy Fleetwood, McMullan & Sanabria Architects.

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Join us for our Winter Lecture Series!

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Kicking off Friday, January 12

Meeting the second Friday of each month at 7PM

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Friday, January 12: The Historical Photography of William G. Howard

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Randy Kolhoff, the owner of Black Swan Antiques, tells the story of how discovered glass plate negatives of photographs taken by William G. Howard at the turn of the last century. In addition to seeing how Howard documented Sag Harbor and the East End, attendees will learn about the photographer’s mysterious death, which some suspect was a homicide, in 1915. Copies of the book Hamptons featuring Howard’s photographs will be available for sale following the lecture.

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Upcoming Lectures

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Friday, February 9: The Story of the Amistad

Presented by Mia Certic, Executive Director of the Montauk Historical Society

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Friday, March 8: The Plain Sight Project: Slavery on the East End

Presented by the Plain Sight Project Co-Directors, Donnamarie Barnes and David Rattray

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Friday, April 12: How the Dominy Shops returned to North Main Street

Presented by Bob Hefner, Project Director of the Dominy Shops Museum

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All lectures start at 7PM at St. Luke’s Church, 18 James Lane, East Hampton

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For more information, please email or call us at 631-324-6850

Register now to attend!

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Historic Pasturage in East Hampton:

Sheep Fold or Sheep Pound?

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There were so many wonderful holiday celebrations across East Hampton Town last week. On Saturday, East Hampton Village hosted the lighting of the Christmas tree in the “Sheep Fold.” I was surprised to discover that very few people knew where the Sheep Fold is located, which is between Pantigo Road, Egypt and Gay Lanes, despite the sign commemorating its history as a sheep pasture. I was even more surprised to learn that there’s been a difference of opinion about whether the enclosure should be called a sheep fold or a sheep pound. Although identified as a sheep fold on the sign installed in 1950, Helen Rattray told T.H. Breen – who interviewed her in the 1980s for his book, Imagining the Past: East Hampton Histories – that it was actually a sheep pound.

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In a column for the East Hampton Star in 2005, Helen explained further, “The Star led a long battle to preserve ‘sheep pound’ as the name of the public land at the intersection of Montauk Highway with Gay and Egypt Lanes in East Hampton Village. Carleton Kelsey, an old-timer who was then the Amagansett librarian and town historian, backed us up. Newcomers had taken to calling the land the sheep fold, although the distinction between a pound and a fold is a fine one. In Colonial times, sheep belonging to various residents roamed the byways; from time to time, they were impounded — thus, the sheep pound. The word fold implies a different kind of enclosure, like a yard.”

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I think there’s ambiguity about which term was used during the colonial era. While sheep were certainly impounded according to Town records in the 17th and 18th centuries, they were also “folded” or occasionally “let out to fould.” The most common description I found in the Town Trustee minutes was “sheep pasture.”

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By the early 20^th century, the area functioned as a junk yard until 1915 when the LVIS – with permission from the property’s owner, David Gardiner – cleared the debris, fenced, and seeded the area with grass. During the 1930s, when the Star reported on several issues with the fence – including mischievous children tearing it down and drivers knocking it over while trying to park – it was always referred to as the sheep pound. Similarly, the LVIS advertised looking for someone to mow the “sheep pound,” but at the same time, their “Sheep Fold Committee” oversaw the enclosure’s management.

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After a failed attempt to rezone the area so a gas station could be built on the site, Alice Carter Dickerman purchased the land in December 1947 and donated it to the Village of East Hampton. On the map that was printed the following year to celebrate East Hampton’s 300^th anniversary, the area was listed as the “Sheep Fold.” Now in the 21^st century, East Hampton Village continues to maintain the area and, at least since the 1960s, has lighted a Christmas tree in the Sheep Pound (or Fold, if you prefer) just like last week.

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If you have a preference about whether the enclosure should be called a sheep fold or a sheep pound, please tell us on Instagram or Facebook.

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From the Collections

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In preparation for our nation’s semi-quincentennial or 250^th anniversary in 2026, the East Hampton Historical Society is planning to restore the Mulford Farmhouse to how it appeared during the American Revolution. As part of the effort, we will refurnish the house, removing artifacts currently on display that were made or used after 1776. While the objects that we add will not necessarily have direct association with the Mulford family, they will be typical of a well-to-do East Hampton household at the time. Since we haven’t found any inventories, account books, or wills detailing what was in the Mulford farmhouse, we must rely on these sources from other local residents such as Elisha Osborne, who died in 1761, and Zebedee Osborn, who died in 1785.

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Reviewing the two Osborn inventories, we can identify what kind of furniture, bedding, tools, and kitchenware may have been in the Mulford farmhouse. For example, Zebedee Osborn’s home furnishings included “12 puter plates, 9 platers (platters), 5 basons (basins or bowls).” The inventory for Elisha Osborn included plates, platters, and basins made of pewter and earthenware. As one of the wealthiest families in East Hampton, the Mulfords probably had more than two dining sets, as well. In 1993, during an excavation of the area where Rachel’s Garden is now located, archeologists found many fragments of redware dishes along with creamware.

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In addition to the Mulford family, eight enslaved people lived on Mulford Farm during the American Revolution. Did they also eat from pewter or earthenware dishes? While we don’t know for sure, it’s more likely they used a wooden plate – like the one pictured here – which was frequently called a trencher. The word derives from “trancher” meaning to cut or carve. Prior to the development of plates in the Middle Ages, a thick slice of bread was used as a plate for eating and for carving meat. Dominy account books record six trenchers being commissioned for 7 shillings.

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In addition to helping us tell the story of Jack, Abigail, and the other enslaved people who lived on Mulford Farm, this trencher has a connection with East Hampton’s history as an arts community. This trencher was one of several artifacts donated to the Historical Society in the late 1930s by Matilda Ackley Donoho, who was married to the acclaimed landscape painter, Ruger Donoho. Like Thomas Moran, Ruger was a pioneer in the East Hampton artistic community who moved to East Hampton in 1891 and married Matilda in 1894. Living at 48 Egypt Lane until he passed away in 1916, Matilda sold the house to their good friend, the artist, Childe Hassam.

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