Westhampton Beach Has No Named Neighborhoods -- Here Is What Actually Divides the Village

Why This Page Does Not List Neighborhood Names

Some Hamptons villages have real, well-documented internal place names -- a nicknamed street, a named golf-course conversion, a distinct zip code with its own reputation. Westhampton Beach, based on the research behind this page, is not one of them. There is no confirmed record of named subdivisions, marketing districts, or informally recognized neighborhood boundaries within the village. Rather than borrow language from a larger Hamptons village next door or invent something that sounds plausible, this page treats that absence as the honest starting point: what actually distinguishes different parts of Westhampton Beach is geography and a small number of specific historic buildings, not neighborhood branding.

A Village of 3.0 Square Miles, Split Between Mainland and Barrier Beach

Westhampton Beach was incorporated as its own village in 1928, inside the Town of Southampton, Suffolk County, on Long Island's South Shore -- a distinct incorporation date from the other South Fork villages covered elsewhere on this site. Its entire footprint is small: 3.0 square miles total, made up of 2.9 square miles of land and just 0.1 square miles of water. That is not a large enough area to support genuinely separate neighborhoods in the way a bigger town might; instead, the meaningful split within that footprint is a physical one, between the mainland village and the narrow barrier beach that extends off it into the Atlantic.

That barrier-beach geography is the reason this village's history reads so differently from a typical mainland suburb. A barrier beach is a narrow, exposed strip of sand separated from the mainland, and Westhampton Beach's version of one has absorbed the worst of every major storm this village has faced, while the mainland side has functioned as the more settled, year-round village core.

The Barrier Beach Side: Where the Ground Has Actually Moved

The clearest evidence of how differently the barrier beach behaves from the rest of the village is its storm record. On September 21, 1938, the hurricane known as the Long Island Express struck the community directly, destroying nearly all of the summer homes standing on the barrier beach and causing twenty-nine deaths in Westhampton Beach specifically. That is fully resolved history -- a documented disaster, not an ongoing dispute -- and it is specific to this barrier beach, not a generic regional statistic borrowed from Long Island as a whole.

The barrier beach's troubles did not end in 1938. Beach erosion became a chronic, critical problem there beginning in the 1960s, and in November 1992 a nor'easter destroyed more than eighty homes, prompting renewed intervention from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The single most striking response to that erosion crisis came in the mid-1990s, when fifteen historic houses were physically relocated inland, away from the barrier beach, specifically to save them from the eroding shoreline. Hurricane Sandy, in 2012, required still more restoration work along that same stretch of coast. Taken together, that is a barrier-beach side of the village whose physical boundaries have genuinely shifted over time -- a far more literal kind of "neighborhood change" than any marketing label could describe.

Three Named Landmarks: The Crowther House, the Foster-Meeker House, and the U.S. Post Office

If any part of Westhampton Beach carries a real, documented, individually recognized identity, it is these three properties, each independently listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the Crowther House, the Foster-Meeker House, and the U.S. Post Office. Unlike an invented "district" or "enclave" name, a National Register listing is a specific, verifiable designation tied to an individual building, which is exactly why this page can name these three and stop there rather than extending the list with guesses.

This research did not turn up construction dates, architectural styles, current uses, or public-access details for any of the three beyond their National Register status, so none of that is asserted here. Anyone researching a specific address near one of these three landmarks should confirm details directly with the Westhampton Beach Village government or the New York State Historic Preservation Office rather than relying on secondhand description.

How the Small Village Actually Runs

Because Westhampton Beach is its own incorporated village rather than an unincorporated hamlet, it runs its own police, ambulance, and fire departments instead of relying solely on the Town of Southampton for those services. Students are served by the Westhampton Beach Union Free School District. Long Island Rail Road reaches the village via its Montauk Branch, and road access runs through Sunrise Highway (NY 27) and Montauk Highway (CR 80). None of that varies by "neighborhood," because the village itself is the relevant governing unit across its full 3.0 square miles -- there is no separate village-within-the-village government to research or budget around.

Who Actually Lives Here, and What This Page Will Not Guess

The 2020 census recorded a village population of 2,150, up from 1,902 in the 2000 census. That 2000 census also recorded a demographic breakdown of 89.17 percent White, 4.63 percent African American, 1.16 percent Asian, and 7.68 percent Hispanic or Latino residents, along with a median household income of $58,438, a median family income of $74,412, and roughly 9 percent of the population living below the poverty line. Those income and demographic figures are now roughly a quarter-century old and should be read as historical record, not a current 2026 snapshot of who lives in the village today.

No exact current 2026 home price, property-tax rate, or flood-insurance premium specific to Westhampton Beach was confirmed in the research behind this page, and none is invented here. No specific named local businesses, restaurants, or current Main Street retail listings were confirmed either, and none appear on this page as a result. Before making any decision about where within this small village to buy, talk with a local real estate agent about what is actually available today, a licensed insurance agent about flood-zone and premium specifics tied to the barrier-beach side versus the mainland side, and, where relevant, a tax professional. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, insurance, or financial advice.