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It is safe to say that no one moving to Further Lane in the future—or residing there now for that matter—will live the way Adelaide de Menil did in the past. No one, that is, will live as simply, tranquilly and unpretentiously as de Menil and her husband, Ted Carpenter, have for over three decades.
With nearly forty oceanfront acres—by far the largest property on Further Lane—and an inherited fortune, de Menil could have had a sprawling palazzo, a monstrous garage-mahal, a self-reverential monument, like so many other members of the privileged classes in the Hamptons. But that is not her style. More likely would have been a distinctive contemporary house by an important architect, suitable for a woman in the arts who is considered a modernist. Her family, after all, created one of the world’s major private art collections, and commissioned Renzo Piano to design the Menil Collection museum in Houston. But she chose to live in a collection of historic houses and barns that she rescued from various local sites starting in 1973.
“The first time we brought buildings to Further Lane, we had no grand plan, no overall picture about what we were getting into,” she told me recently. “More than 30 years ago the houses were mostly unwanted, abandoned, the owners looking to sell. The first house we acquired was the Purple House, so called because the shingles had been painted some shade of purple, which then faded to light gray…It was on land owned by the East Hampton Library. They wanted to build a wing where the Purple House was standing.”
The acquisitions continued: the Hand house from Amagansett, a barn from Bridgehampton, the old Northwest Peach Farm house, and then a series of cottages, sheds, barns and even a corn crib.
Once they decided to sell the Further Lane property, de Menil and Carpenter guessed—correctly—that their historic compound did not have a bright future. “Having restored and maintained these structures, our home, we couldn't bear the idea of having them demolished, as, generally, people interested in our land were not interested in these modest buildings, whose architecture was influenced by early 17th century British ship building.”
Like any creative process, the preservation idea developed and grew and changed. At first de Menil was interested in returning the Purple House to a site on the library grounds, but that did not work out. Then, in partnership with the town, a plan was developed to return the structures to the original neighborhoods if not always the original site. But this proved too complex since it involved a coalition of private and public land and uncertain ownership and maintenance.
The grounds of the East Hampton Town Hall were to be used as a staging area for the moves, and it occurred to Town Supervisor Bill McGinty that maybe some of the buildings should stay there. That turned out to be the idea with traction.
“The idea appealed to us, that the buildings would be saved beyond any one lifetime, that they would be enjoyed by everyone,” de Menil told me. “We were struck by how grand they looked on the Town Hall lawn, powerful in their perfect proportions, their simplicity.”
Everyone agreed that East Hampton Town deserved a more distinguished seat of government than it has—an ordinary brick commercial structure enhanced with wood trailers. “We knew it had to be done right, with a logical overall plan, so we went to Robert A. M. Stern,” McGinty said to us. The result is an impressive conceptual plan incorporating the historic buildings, some freestanding, some with glass connecting structures.
I asked Randy Correll, who is in charge of the project, about it. “As the architect, I was struck by the adaptability of these buildings which are over 200 years old. The two barns and two houses which are the core of the new compound, fit the programmatic needs of the Town perfectly and will require only minimal alteration.”
McGinty has boldly and assiduously guided the process along since then, and it is almost certain to be his most enduring political legacy. The plan is still being fine tuned, and de Menil and Carpenter remain involved. Their vision is to “retain the simple austerity and blend it with the best of contemporary design.”
De Menil and Carpenter paid for the buildings to be moved to the Town Hall location in mid-April, and they are also donating $2 million for future maintenance. The town will contribute an additional million to that fund and a million to maintain three small structures going to the East Hampton and Amagansett Historical Societies. McGinty pointed out to us that the town will receive about $2 million from a transfer tax on the de Menil sale to Ron Baron, so it turns out to be a neat little package and a good deal for the taxpayers.
Outside of Mother Nature, no one has given East Hampton a finer or more important gift than de Menil and Carpenter. Will they stay here to enjoy it? “Our plans for the future are still in formation. We are not leaving the Hamptons, where we have established roots.”