Things to Do in East Hampton and Amagansett
East Hampton Village and the neighboring hamlet of Amagansett get lumped together on most maps, but they earned their history separately. East Hampton Village was laid out in 1648 around a wide Puritan common that is now Main Street, and it still has two working-era windmills and a restored 1600s farmhouse standing near that same ground. Amagansett was settled a few decades later, in 1680, grew its own quiet enclave of old money in the late 1800s, and then became the unlikely landing point for four Nazi saboteurs in the middle of World War II. None of this needs embellishing. It is simply what is actually here.
The Windmills and the Original Common
When Puritan settlers established East Hampton Village in 1648, they laid out their plantations in classic New England fashion: home lots of 8 to 12 acres flanking a wide common, with surrounding farmland divided into the Eastern Plain, the Great Plain, and the Little Plain. That common sat on the plain north of Hook Pond, and it is still recognizable today as Main Street -- one of the few places in the country where you can stand on ground laid out for a village nearly 380 years ago and still see it functioning as a village center.
Two historic windmills still stand from that era: Hook Mill and the Gardiner Windmill. Both are visible reminders of the working agricultural landscape that once filled the Eastern, Great, and Little Plains before any of it became a summer destination. Confirm current public access, tour availability, and open hours directly, since seasonal schedules for historic sites change from year to year.
The Home Sweet Home House
Also standing near the original common is the Home Sweet Home house, one of the village's oldest surviving structures. It was restored under the direction of Historic District Consultant Robert J. Hefner, whose work on the property is part of the documented record of how East Hampton Village has preserved its 17th-century core rather than letting it disappear under later development.
Seeing Hook Mill, the Gardiner Windmill, and the Home Sweet Home house together in one walk around the village center is the closest thing East Hampton offers to a self-guided history lesson: a common laid out in 1648, working windmills from the centuries that followed, and a restored period house that ties the whole plan back to the people who actually lived on it.
The Artist Colony on the Great and Eastern Plains
East Hampton's identity as a summer destination did not start with wealth -- it started with painters. In the final quarter of the 1800s, artists discovered the area's agrarian landscape and began spending summers there, and that discovery set off a genuine summer-colony boom. Modest shingled cottages went up near Ocean Avenue and Lily Pond Lane on the Great Plain, the same farmland that had been divided out of the original 1648 common two centuries earlier.
By the early 1900s, the Eastern Plain -- the stretch from Egypt Lane to Cross Highway -- was hosting sizable estates rather than cottages, marking the start of East Hampton's long run as a wealthy summer colony. Walking or driving through both areas today means passing through two distinct chapters of the same story: the artists who arrived first, and the larger estates that followed once the area's reputation had grown.
Amagansett's Founding and the Devon Colony
Amagansett was settled in 1680, three decades after East Hampton Village, by families including the Bakers, Conklins, and Barnes, along with Dutch brothers Abraham and Jacob Schellinger, who arrived sometime between 1680 and 1690. The hamlet's name comes from a Montaukett-language phrase generally translated as place of good water.
In the late 19th century, Procter & Gamble executives established the Devon Colony in Amagansett, an enclave built on generational wealth and understated living rather than public display. Its properties rarely enter the open real estate market and tend to stay out of public price records, which is itself part of the point -- Devon Colony was built around discretion, not visibility, and that has held for well over a century.
The Night Four Saboteurs Landed on Amagansett Beach
Amagansett's most dramatic historical episode happened shortly after midnight on June 13, 1942, when four Nazi saboteurs landed by German U-boat on the beach here as part of a mission called Operation Pastorius. The team was led by George John Dasch, 39, and included Ernest Peter Burger, 36, Heinrich Harm Heinck, 35, and Richard Quirin, 34. They came ashore carrying explosives and incendiaries meant for targets inside the United States.
After burying their equipment and uniforms on the beach, the group was spotted by an unarmed Coast Guard patrolman. They offered him a bribe, which he accepted -- and then reported the encounter anyway. The four escaped to New York City by train, but Dasch had second thoughts about the plan. He contacted the FBI on June 14, identifying himself as Pastorius, and was taken into custody on June 19 after meeting with agents in Washington. His cooperation led directly to the arrest of the other three Long Island team members by June 20.
How the Case Was Resolved
This is a fully resolved piece of history, not an open question. All eight Operation Pastorius saboteurs -- the four who landed at Amagansett plus a second, separate four-man team that came ashore in Florida -- faced a military trial. Six of the eight were executed at the District of Columbia Jail on August 8, 1942. Dasch, whose cooperation had broken the case open, had his sentence commuted to 30 years rather than execution. Burger's sentence was likewise commuted, to life imprisonment.
There is no ongoing dispute about how the case ended: six executions, one 30-year commutation, and one life-sentence commutation, all finalized in 1942. What makes the Amagansett beach worth a stop is not a museum or a marker built around the event -- it is the fact that an otherwise quiet stretch of shoreline was, for one night, the entry point for a real wartime sabotage operation that was fully uncovered and closed out within about two months.
Planning a Visit Honestly
What this page confirms: East Hampton Village's 1648 founding around the common now known as Main Street, the surviving Hook Mill and Gardiner Windmill, the Home Sweet Home house restored under Robert J. Hefner, the late-1800s artist colony that grew into estates on the Eastern Plain, Amagansett's 1680 settlement and its Devon Colony history, and the fully resolved 1942 Operation Pastorius landing and trial. What it does not do: invent a museum, tour operator, or scheduled event beyond what is documented above, or apply Montauk's lighthouse-and-Camp-Hero history or any other Long Island or Jersey Shore market's material to this one.
Historic sites here operate on their own seasonal schedules, and public access to structures like Hook Mill, the Gardiner Windmill, and the Home Sweet Home house can vary by year. Confirm current hours, admission, and access directly before planning a visit. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data drawn from research on East Hampton Village and Amagansett, New York: East Hampton Village's establishment in 1648 by Puritan settlers who laid out home lots of 8 to 12 acres around a wide common (today's Main Street) on the plain north of Hook Pond, with surrounding farmland divided into the Eastern Plain (Egypt Lane to Cross Highway), Great Plain (Hook Pond to Lily Pond), and Little Plain (Lily Pond to Georgica Pond); the surviving Hook Mill and Gardiner Windmill and the Home Sweet Home house, restored under Historic District Consultant Robert J. Hefner's direction; the late-1800s artist-colony boom that produced modest shingled cottages near Ocean Avenue and Lily Pond Lane on the Great Plain and, by the early 1900s, sizable estates on the Eastern Plain; Amagansett's 1680 settlement by the Baker, Conklin, and Barnes families and Dutch brothers Abraham and Jacob Schellinger (who arrived between 1680 and 1690), and a name derived from a Montaukett-language phrase meaning place of good water; the late-19th-century Devon Colony established by Procter & Gamble executives as an understated, discretion-first enclave; and the June 13, 1942 landing of four Operation Pastorius saboteurs (George John Dasch, Ernest Peter Burger, Heinrich Harm Heinck, and Richard Quirin) on Amagansett's beach, their bribe of an unarmed Coast Guard patrolman who reported the encounter anyway, Dasch's June 14 contact with the FBI and June 19 custody, the arrest of the remaining Long Island team members by June 20, and the fully resolved military-trial outcome of six executions at the District of Columbia Jail on August 8, 1942, with Dasch's sentence commuted to 30 years and Burger's commuted to life imprisonment. This page does not reuse Montauk's lighthouse, Carl Fisher, or Camp Hero material, or Red Bank's Navesink River material, and it does not invent a specific current (2026) home price, property-tax rate, flood-insurance figure, museum, tour operator, or scheduled event beyond what is confirmed here. Confirm current hours, access, and event schedules for Hook Mill, the Gardiner Windmill, and the Home Sweet Home house directly before planning a visit. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.