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On Saturday, August 12th, Robert and Soledad Hurst are hosting a benefit for CancerCare, with Roy Scheider as the honoree, at their Sagaponack home. The invitation promises “drinks and lavish hors d’oeuvres.” This seems quite appropriate since everything about the place is lavish.
The property, 30 acres on Sag Pond with ocean views, is one of the best in the Hamptons. It was known as Smythe’s Corners until one Richard (Bull) Smythe was banished from Southampton in 1656 for not behaving. His crime was arrogance. If the punishment were enforced today, we’d no doubt have a declining population.
Smythe must have been quite a bad boy, given that the early settlers in Sagaponack were a rambunctious group, and got away with it. They were originally sent out from the Southampton settlement to establish a church and outpost at Sagaponack Lake, and though they continued for years to take money from the town fathers they never got around spending it on a church building. The banished Mr. Smythe, by the way, went west on Long Island to establish what is now Smithtown.
(CancerCare, Saturday, August 12th, 6:00 to 8:00 pm. For tickets, call Linda Shapiro (631) 329-5480)
Don’t put the checkbook, or your thoughts about health, away quite so soon. The annual Southampton Hospital gala, one of the biggest and most dazzling benefit parties in the Hamptons, takes place on August 5th.
Southampton Hospital also occupies some very impressive real estate. South of the highway, not far from the ocean, straddling the best estate areas of the village. Any hedge fund manager or overcompensated CEO would go mad for the land and the address.
When Southampton Hospital began, there was no such concept as “the Hamptons.” You lived in a particular place, a place that had a history of three or more centuries, and if you wanted to refer to the general area you said the “East End” or the “South Fork.” Now we all live in the Hamptons—a place celebrated, analyzed, reviled and envied by people who live in other places. And that means most of the world west of Remsenburg.
The name Southampton Hospital has a great sound. It implies, however, that the facility is for Southampton residents. But the truth is different. People in the western part of the sizeable Southampton township are actually closer to other hospitals. The eastern parts of Southampton Town, including Southampton Village, and all of East Hampton Town are the geographical areas that rely on the hospital.
Should it be called something else? And, if so, what? Hospital of the Hamptons might make sense, although I suspect for outsiders that name conjures up a place where rich people go to dry out or have elective surgery, or as a brand name for diet and health products. Those of us who live here know the real story is very different. Southampton Hospital is here for the community, rich and poor, dowdy or fashionable, boldfaced names and anonymous, often undocumented, people in need.
I don’t have an answer to the name game. But I know that some people involved have started—just started—thinking about this puzzler. Nomenclature aside, we still need to continue to support the hospital, and now is the time—especially for all the people in Amagansett and East Hampton Village, in Northwest, Springs and Wainscott, in Sagaponack, Bridgehampton and Water Mill. Share the burden—or at least buy a ticket and share the party.
(Southampton Hospital “By the Sea” Summer Party, Saturday, August 5th. For tickets, call Kathy Lucas (631) 726-8700 or klucas@southamptonhospital.org)
