Ox Pasture Road

Ox Pasture Road runs west from First Neck Lane through the Incorporated Village of Southampton to the pavement end at Heady Creek, a tidal creek. The Village's 1985 National Register nomination uses the road as the northern edge of the summer colony: the colony lies "generally" south of Ox Pasture Road to the ocean. Much of the road's length is therefore inside or along the edge of the Southampton Village Historic District.

The name is older than the resort. The Southampton History Museum's tour notes say it comes from the ox pasture, which lay in two divisions, north and south. Summer houses with park-like grounds followed the railroad's arrival in 1870.

The road has two property bands. The eastern and central stretch is inland summer-colony land. The western end reaches Heady Creek, where some parcels have tidal frontage and the Village keeps a public landing.

Houses the record names

The nomination's sample of the summer colony includes the Tudor Revival house at 228 Ox Pasture Road and the Shingle Style house at 195 Ox Pasture Road. Its history section names two more on the road without addresses: the Colonial Revival mansion built in 1889 for Judge Horace Russell, designed by Bruce Price, and the Arts and Crafts Ely Mansion of about 1900 by Grosvenor Atterbury.

Whether those two survive, and on which lots, is not established here. An attribution to Price or Atterbury should come with the inventory entry or building file.

Heady Creek and Penny Landing

The Village Code establishes the Ox Pasture Road (Penny Landing) parking area: both sides of the right-of-way from a point 800 feet west of Lee Avenue to the pavement end at Heady Creek. It is a special-permit area for launching permitted watercraft into tidal water. At the west end, that permit area is the road frontage of the houses on either side.

The Village's Heady Creek and Taylor Creek subwatershed map shows Ox Pasture Road and marks the area's watersheds as pathogen-impaired by the state. For a creek-side parcel, the Village wetlands law applies. Buildings and structures within 150 feet of the wetland boundary, septic systems within 200 feet, and clearing or fertilizing within 125 feet need a wetlands special permit from the Village Zoning Board of Appeals, or from the Town Trustees where they have jurisdiction. Docks and bulkheads have their own permit chain.

At the east end, the road meets First Neck Lane where the Village's 2009 plan begins its description of the Lake Agawam watershed boundary. Parcels there drain toward the lake, not the creek.

Questions to settle before contract

• Is the parcel inside the historic district boundary? The road is the edge, so the north and south sides can differ.
• If marketed as waterfront, does title run to Heady Creek, and what does the survey show for the wetland line?
• Dock, bulkhead and float permits: Village, Town Trustees and state.
• How close is the driveway to the Penny Landing permit parking area?
• Contributing status of the house and outbuildings, and any prior Certificates of Appropriateness.
• FEMA zone and elevation for creek-end parcels.

Nearby

First Neck Lane runs south from the east end along Lake Agawam. Captains Neck Lane, Great Plains Road and Halsey Neck Lane share the Heady Creek and Taylor Creek drainage. Gin Lane is the summer colony's ocean edge. See also Southampton Village.

Considering Ox Pasture Road?

Request a private pricing review of a specific Ox Pasture Road property from The Roebling Research Desk. It covers the district line, creek frontage and wetlands setbacks, the landing next door and the comparable inland and creek-side sales.