FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Town of Southampton
Landmarks & Historic Districts Board
t: (631) 283-6000
www.southamptontownny.gov/landmarks
: bfleming@southamptontownny.gov
: stlhdb@optonline.net
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Town Installs Hay Ground Heritage Area Signs
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Two signs officially recognizing the east and west boundaries of the Hay Ground Hamlet Heritage Area along Montauk Highway in the Town of Southampton have recently completed installation, the first at installed Hayground Road, and the second just west of the Bridgehampton Commons shopping center.
In June of 2011 the Town Board officially approved the report documenting Hay Ground’s history and identity as a Hamlet Heritage Area. “A Hamlet Heritage Resource Area is an honorary title bestowed in recognition of the special character of a neighborhood, hamlet or area. It honors the properties and the community that has cherished its historic heritage. Properties selected as hamlet heritage resources retain the same current Town rights, uses, and regulations. Properties selected as part of Hamlet Heritage Resource Areas are not designated thereby as Town landmarks or Town historic districts.” Hay Ground is the fifth such area to be recognized by Southampton, along with Water Mill, Quiogue, Eastport, and Bridgehampton. Several other Hamlet Heritage Area Reports are in progress, including East Quogue and Flanders. All of these reports offer valuable historic information about each hamlet and are available to the public through the town’s website: www.southamptontownny.gov/landmarks.
The Hay Ground community partially overlaps the hamlets of Bridgehampton and Water Mill. “Its name derives from being especially conducive for haying,” according to the report’s author, Dr. J. Kirkpatrick Flack. “There was quite a romantic side to this kind of work, although it was laborious,” according to an early twentieth century recollection. “Many young men welcomed haying as a time of physical challenge and competition. To be the best mower in a neighborhood, the one customarily chosen to lead ‘a gang of hands in hay’ across the field, was a distinction they eagerly sought.”
If anyone is interested in more information about historic hamlet identities or resources, they can be found at www.historic.southamptontownny.gov. If you would like to participate in the compilation of a Hamlet Heritage Area Report, please contact the Landmarks & Historic Districts Board at stlhdb@optonline.net or (631) 283-6000