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The Northwest Woods section of East Hampton, that area north of the village, south of Sag Harbor and west of Three Mile Harbor, used to be a lower priced alternative to south of the highway locations. Lower cost but also lower caste. As prices escalated however so did status.
Inexorably, like the desert in China, the estate areas of the Hamptons keep expanding, and Northwest—as well as other once remote wooded areas in East Hampton and Southampton—has become highly desirable.
Prices—no surprise—have kept pace and listings of three or four million dollars and more are not unusual here. Quality too has kept pace, and newer houses are predictably lavish. And then there is waterfront—lots of it. Newer waterfront areas are very posh, and in older ones, small simple cottages are morphing into major biggies.
There are of course many more houses than there used to be, but most are on side roads or subdivision roads. Greenbelts along the more traveled older roads in Northwest hide the development and keep the rural look.
These areas are best in spring, when they are alive with growth, before the more monotonous summer look of the scrub oak forest takes over. On cool, sunny spring days, places like Northwest Harbor can be striking in their beauty. The many wild dogwoods (more there than any other place I know) bloom in mid May, with dazzling pink-edged white blossoms, set against the later leafing surrounding oaks and feathery white pines.
Few people realize it, but from 1663 on, a small port and village prospered here, part of the trade between the West Indies and the Colonies. Whale oil and bone collected by offshore whalers in Mecox and Sagaponack came via Merchant’s Path to the harbor at Northwest, and were shipped to Connecticut and other colonial settlements, and locally bred horses were exported to the West Indies.
On return trips, timber and cider were received from the colonies, and sugar, rum and molasses from the Caribbean. Starting in the late eighteenth century, the port gradually declined after the Long Wharf was constructed in Sag Harbor and trade shifted there. The settlement at Northwest, with its schoolhouse and warehouses and commercial life, disappeared entirely by the end of the nineteenth century. A little plaque commemorates it, and if you have a sharp eye you can find foundation stones and old wells scattered about.
Yes, there are stylish new houses in Northwest, but if you pay attention history is all around you. Buffalo Wallow is an unspoiled tract of wetlands and brush, close to where the Northwest schoolhouse once stood. The name dates back to late nineteenth century when a herd of buffalo belonging to David Johnson Gardiner used to graze in the shallow waters and stay cool here during the summers. They wintered in a pasture off Main Street in East Hampton, behind what is now the Ladies Village Improvement Society headquarters. Not at all a bad schedule.
I stopped at Buffalo Wallow recently and it seemed deserted and silent at first, but I did not feel at all alone. When I listened, there was the vibrant buzz of nature, not sharp, not intrusive, but not just background music either. In my mind’s eye I saw the buffalo wallowing. I saw enormous happy beasts shambling along, having a bang-up time in the salt meadow and marshes. History, no less than contemporary life in the Hamptons can give us sublime moments.