The Hook Historic District

The Hook Historic District covers the north end of East Hampton's original common, an area long called "the Hook." It takes in the 1806 Hook Windmill, the North End Cemetery, the old greens, and the early houses that continue east along Pantigo Road. The Village designated it in 1996, its second local district after Main Street.

The district matters to an owner for two reasons. Exterior work needs a Design Review Board certificate. And the district includes driveway strips to houses that sit behind it, so a flag-lot owner can be inside the district for the strip only.

The National Register recognizes overlapping ground under different names, the North Main Street and Pantigo Road historic districts, both listed in 1988. Those listings do not impose review. The local district does.

What is designated, by whom and when

The Village Board of Trustees established the Hook Historic District in 1996 under Chapter 176, "Preservation of Historic Areas." The Village's history of the program records that the Preservation League of New York State gave the Village Board a 1997 award for establishing it.

The Village's preservation consultant describes the district's contents as:

• the remnants of the north-end common: the Memorial Green around the Hook Windmill, the North End Cemetery (established 1770), a small parcel north of the cemetery, the open meadow between the cemetery and Accabonac Road, and the triangular Sheep Fold at Pantigo Road and Egypt Lane;
• the 1806 Hook Windmill, built by Nathaniel Dominy V;
• the 1901 United Methodist Church;
• historic residences from the early eighteenth to the early twentieth century, including agricultural outbuildings and carriage barns.

Contributing count. The consultant's article counts 27 contributing residences. The 1997 Design Review Manual counts 25, 22 of them with front porches, and five non-contributing properties. The designation report settles the figure for any one property.

On the National Register, the North Main Street Historic District and the Pantigo Road Historic District were both listed on July 21, 1988. The Hook Windmill was individually listed in 1978.

The boundary in words

The Village's description is unusually explicit about why the line falls where it does:

• North: the Long Island Rail Road right-of-way.
• West: where the adjacent non-historic commercial development begins.
• East (Pantigo Road): the last intact historic residence, the early-eighteenth-century Dayton-Stratton House.
• South: drawn to leave out a group of non-historic commercial buildings on Pantigo Road. The Methodist Church, the Sheep Fold and the Accabonac Road meadow screen them from the greens.

The district also includes nine driveway access strips to flag-lot houses behind the contributing buildings. For those owners, only a fence, wall or gate at the street or within the strip needs an application.

What designation changes for an owner

Chapter 176 requires a certificate of appropriateness before any exterior alteration, removal of a pre-1880 timber-frame member, demolition, new construction or moving. No building permit issues without it. Normal maintenance is exempt, and the Board decides within 60 days of a complete application.

The Hook manual sorts work into three lanes:

• Exempt: reshingling with matching cedar, a new cedar roof, storm and screen windows and doors, gutters and leaders, any repainting of a painted surface, in-kind porch steps and floors, resurfacing an existing driveway, all walkways, back-yard fences up to four feet that are not visible from the street, and most plantings.
• Expedited (chair or vice chair): a compliant composition roof, in-kind door, window and porch repairs, side and rear alterations, rear additions that meet the guidelines, and decks not visible from the street.
• Full board: new driveways, pools and tennis courts, grading and retaining walls, perimeter and court lighting, re-siding with anything but matching cedar, chimney removal, painting natural shingles, additions visible from the street, and all demolition, relocation and new construction.

The National Register listings add no review of privately funded work. A listed or contributing owner-occupied house in a qualifying census tract may qualify for New York's 20% homeowner rehabilitation credit, approved before work begins.

Guidelines that shape a project

• Siting. The earliest houses sit close to the street. Buildings on their original sites should not be moved back.
• Fences. Picket fences along the street are encouraged, with a baseboard and cap and pickets no higher than 4 feet 6 inches. No solid board or chain link fence is allowed on a front line. The cemetery's picket fence with stone posts and the Sheep Pound's board fence are singled out as the district's most important fences.
• Masonry walls should not be built on a property line.
• Plantings within 10 feet of the street are reviewed. A six-foot privet hedge is acceptable; a dense screen over six feet is not.
• Outbuildings. Surviving eighteenth- and nineteenth-century barns, sheds and outbuildings are to be treated as among the most valuable structures in the district.
• Additions follow the local pattern of subordinate rear kitchen wings and lean-tos.
• Demolition. Approved plans for the replacement must come first, and the Board may require a guarantee that the new building will be finished within a set time. A demolition request based on deterioration needs an engineer's or architect's report with repair costs.
• Contemporary design that responds to the district's traditions is expressly encouraged for new buildings.

Diligence for a buyer or seller

• Confirm whether the parcel itself is in the district or only its driveway strip.
• Read the property's entry in the designation report for its classification. The consultant's article and the manual disagree on the total, so rely on the report.
• If the Pantigo Road frontage is commercial or mixed use, the commercial site-plan rules apply on top of historic review.
• Outbuildings carry weight here. Inventory them, establish their lawful use and photograph them before any work.
• A seller should assemble the certificate and permit history, plus any evidence of restoration.

The Hook adjoins the north end of the Main Street Historic District, and the two together cover most of the original common. The Village's other districts are Huntting Lane and Ocean Avenue. See the East Hampton Village guide for the wider market.

Considering a property in the Hook district?

Request a property brief from The Roebling Research Desk: district and National Register status by tax map number, the designation report entry, the approval history of the house and outbuildings, and the Village properties that actually compete.