Lily Pond Lane

Lily Pond Lane is the ocean-side spine of East Hampton Village's southwest estate district. The 1988 National Register nomination for the Village names it, with Lee Avenue, as one of the two principal streets at the southwest end of the expanded East Hampton Village Historic District, and places the largest of the Village's late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century summer houses on semi-secluded lots "on or behind the dunes south of Lily Pond Lane."

The whole lane lies inside the Incorporated Village of East Hampton. Village zoning, building, design review and beach rules apply; Suffolk County sanitary rules and state coastal regulation sit on top of them.

The useful division is not the address but the side of the road. South-side parcels run toward the dune and the Atlantic. North-side parcels look back toward the Village and the ponds. The two sides carry different coastal rules, different exposure and different comparables.

What the record shows

The National Register nomination is the best single document on the lane's architecture. It records a group of large summer houses built between roughly 1905 and 1926, several by Albro and Lindeberg:

• The 1905 Cockcroft House and the 1910 Hollister House, which use round-arched openings and wooden pergolas to suggest a Mediterranean idiom.
• The 1912 John Erdman House, whose rounded roof edges were meant to recall thatch, a form the nomination says echoes the shape of the nearby dunes.
• Lindeberg's 1915 Alcott House, with gently flared roof planes.
• The 1920 Herbert Coppell House and the 1926 Eltinge F. Warner house, "Cima del Mundo," designed by Robert Tappan with stucco walls and tiled roofs; the nomination calls it the most imposing example of the Spanish or Mediterranean style in the Village.

The Coppell and Warner houses were nominated as individual components; the others fall within the expanded Village district. National Register listing is an honor and a tax-credit gateway. It does not, by itself, impose local review.

Local review comes from the Village's own four historic districts and its landmark designations under Village Code chapter 176. The Village design review chapter also asks the Design Review Board to weigh the setting of any designated landmark or district when reviewing work on a property within 100 feet of it. On a lane with this many recorded houses, a buyer should confirm both the parcel's own status and its neighbors'.

The ocean side

Parcels between the lane and the Atlantic sit on the Village's dune system. The Town's coastal program records that the federal groins on the Village ocean beach have affected the beaches to the west, and New York State maps a Coastal Erosion Hazard Area (the state-defined zone along the shore where new building and some rebuilding need a special permit) along this coast.

The Town's 2022 draft coastal resiliency plan listed East Hampton Village among its focus areas and reported that about half of the beaches in the Town and Village were retreating. That is a shoreline-scale statement. The parcel questions are the dune's depth and height in front of the house, the lawful position of every structure and stair, and whether past work was permitted.

The inland side

North of the lane, the lots sit back from direct ocean exposure and face the older Village landscape. The Jones Road Historic District, a small National Register district of eighteenth-century and early twentieth-century houses, runs along Jones Road between Apaquogue Road and Lily Pond Lane. Apaquogue Road and Lee Avenue connect the lane back toward Ocean Avenue and the center.

Beach access

Proximity to the ocean is not a parking right. The Village requires a permit to park at its five ocean beaches (Main, Georgica, Egypt, Wiborg's and Two Mile Hollow) from May 15 to September 15. For 2026 the Village sold nonresident season permits in person to Town residents and online to others, with a fixed allocation. Village residents should confirm their own permit terms with Village Hall.

Oceanfront title, a deeded path and a parking permit are three different rights. The private roads and beach rights guide explains how to tell them apart.

Questions to settle before contract

• Which side of the lane is the parcel on, and does the survey show the dune, the Coastal Erosion Hazard line and every structure seaward of the house?
• Is the house individually designated, inside a local Village historic district, or within 100 feet of one?
• Is the house one of the buildings named in the National Register nomination, and does the current structure still match it?
• What Village zoning district applies, and what lot coverage and gross floor area remain?
• What sanitary system serves the house, and has it been upgraded?
• What beach access does the owner actually hold: frontage, a recorded path, or only a Village parking permit?

Nearby

West End Road continues the ocean-and-pond landscape toward Georgica Pond. Ocean Avenue leads back to Main Beach and the Village center. The oceanfront-property guide covers the coastal framework in full.

Considering Lily Pond Lane?

Request a private pricing review for a specific Lily Pond Lane property from The Roebling Research Desk, organized around side of the lane, dune and coastal position, historic status, approvals and the comparables that actually compete.