Hampton Bays

Canoe Place Inn in 1939. SUFFOLK COUNTY'S TEN GREAT TOWNSHIPS PUBLISHED BY SUFFOLK COUNTY BOARD OF UPERVISORS, 1939

The historic Canoe Place Inn on 3.4 acres along Montauk Highway in Hampton Bays is now for sale. It is hoped that new owners will appreciate the unique and interesting history of this inn. It was first constructed in the 1600s near the narrow isthmus that was used by the Indians to carry their canoes from Shinnecock Bay to Peconic Bay before the Shinnecock Canal was built. According to one account, the first building on the site was a stagecoach stop built by Jeremiah Culver in 1680 when the area was called Good Ground. The Canoe Place Inn received a royal charter as a stagecoach inn in 1707. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1921 and was immediately rebuilt, with prominent New York architect, W. Lawrence Bottomley as designer. It was a legendary spot, and later was called Tammany Hall because of its popularity with all New York state politicians as well as mobsters, ballplayers, actors, and other celebrities between 1920 and 1940. The current 3.4-acres could be sold with adjoining properties similarly zoned. Today it is a giant nightclub but the owner wants to lure a resort hotel developer to the site. This proposal does not sit well with the neighbors, environmentalists, or preservationists. As the president of The Group for The South Fork, Robert De Luca, pointed out: “That’s going to make us look like Hauppauge,” and he said he thinks the history of the inn should be reason enough to preserve it. “It’s a building of significance for a lot of people,” he said. “They don’t build them like that any more. You don’t see that on Long Island now.”*

* NY Times, 7/11/99, Elizabeth Kiggen Miller