Town Revisit: East Hampton

East Hampton Historical Museum is hard to get into. Is it famous? No. Is it booked solid with visitors? No. But it is open a total of two hours a month! The town must have gotten tired of people knocking on a closed door because now this sign is downtown. Not that anyone would ever notice that tiny sign next to the pizza shop, but hey, why not? (By the way, where is the Memorial Garden? This sign is stuck in a curb with a few bushes. Does that constitute as the "garden"?)


But anyway, if you plan a visit, plan ahead. We were hoping to learn more about the town's history that we live in. But mostly I just confirmed that I am creeped out by mannequins. The museum has a mannequin in period dress in pretty much every corner of the place. In theory it seems like a good way to display period clothes. In actuality, well, just prepare yourself.

The most interesting thing in the museum is a signature of Mark Twain who signed a guest book for the now defunct (and as I was told by one of the museum guides) and non-existent Lake View House.

The museum itself is split between three buildings. One is an old one-room schoolhouse that was moved to the current location. The 1840 structure used to stand on Chestnut Hill but was dismantled and reassembled at its current location on Bevin Boulevard.

The main building houses the main historic items of the museum including many bells on loan from the Bevin family. The town has a long history of bell making as is evident from its nickname Belltown on many local businesses and the bell on all the streets in town. The factory is the only one in town still producing what it did more than a hundred years ago and according to Stanley Bevin when he was interviewed by The New York Times it is the oldest family run business in Connecticut.

The third building was built onto the back of the museum and holds what seem like "overflow" items. There are more mannequins and an area set up as a post office.

Here is a view of the museums from the front. The red building is the original one-room school house. The other is a replica of a typical building from the same time period.


Check out our second East Hampton visit.
Check out our first East Hampton visit.