A Brief History of Amagansett

Amagansett derives its name from the Montaukett for “place of good water”—from a water source near what today is Indian Wells beach.

Unlike the rest of the Hamptons, Amagansett was initially settled by the Baker, Conklin, and Barnes families, descendants of English settlers, and the Dutch brothers Abraham and Jacob Schellinger, the sons of a New Amsterdam merchant who moved to East Hampton between 1680 and 1690 after the English took over New Amsterdam.

During Operation Pastorius, a failed Nazi attack on the United States in June 1942, during World War II, a submarine dropped off four German spies on Atlantic Avenue beach in Amagansett, where they made their way to the village’s Long Island Rail Road station and boarded a train for New York. A Coast Guardsman assigned to watch the beach noticed the suspicious strangers on the beach and notified the police and the FBI.

Amagansett, a pictorial history of the hamlet, was published in 1997 by Carleton Kelsey, longtime director of the Amagansett Free Library and former town clerk, and Lucinda Mayo, descendant of one of Amagansett’s 17th-century founders.

In 1998 President Bill Clinton, who was vacationing in East Hampton, gave a Saturday radio address from the Amagansett Fire House.

In 2007, the original Coast Guard station, which had been moved to a private residence in 1966 to protect it from demolition, was moved back near its original location at Atlantic Avenue beach. The Coast Guard barracks are now part of the East Hampton Town Marine Museum, which includes exhibits from the town’s maritime history, including whaling relics and a cannon from the American Revolution ship HMS Culloden, which ran aground at Montauk.

As part of the settlement, several 18th- and 19th-century buildings that had been moved to the estate to prevent demolition were moved elsewhere in town—including five that were moved to form a private residence to the East Hampton town government properties.

Many houses and other buildings from the 19th and even 18th centuries still stand in Amagansett, Montauk, the Hamptons, and other Long Island communities.

Amagansett includes a section of Further Lane, which is a block from the ocean, and for years has had one of East Hampton’s biggest collections of mansions. 

The beaches, the night life, the events, and the people.

Amagansett – it’s beautiful here year round.