Seawalls and Bulkheads on the Westhampton Beach Barrier
Westhampton Beach incorporated as a village in 1928, within the Town of Southampton, Suffolk County, on Long Island's South Shore, and it sits on a notably narrow footprint of just 3.0 square miles, 2.9 of it land and 0.1 water, a barrier-beach geography that shapes almost everything else worth knowing about hardening this shoreline. Unlike some neighboring Hamptons villages where the seawall-and-bulkhead question is mostly hypothetical, this is a market with a real, documented, decades-long relationship to coastal armoring: a hurricane in 1938 that destroyed nearly every summer home on the barrier beach, chronic erosion that turned critical starting in the 1960s, a November 1992 nor'easter that destroyed more than eighty homes and pulled in renewed federal intervention, and a mid-1990s effort that physically relocated fifteen historic houses inland to save them from the advancing shoreline. None of that history is invented here, and none of it should be read as proof that any specific bulkhead, seawall, or revetment exists today on any particular lot. What follows separates the resolved history from the general, ongoing regulatory reality, and is honest about where the confirmed research stops.
September 21, 1938: The Long Island Express, a Resolved Disaster
On September 21, 1938, the hurricane known as the Long Island Express struck the South Shore without the warning systems that exist today, and Westhampton Beach absorbed some of the worst of it: the storm devastated the community, destroyed nearly all of the summer homes standing on the barrier beach, and caused twenty-nine deaths in Westhampton Beach specifically. This is settled history, not an ongoing dispute or a live construction question, and it is presented here as exactly that: a single catastrophic event, now more than eighty-five years in the past, that established just how exposed this particular strip of barrier beach is to a direct Atlantic storm.
The 1938 storm is worth knowing on its own terms before getting to the later erosion story, because it explains why later decades of chronic erosion and periodic storm damage landed on a community that had already once rebuilt its barrier beach almost entirely from scratch. It is a different event from Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which arrived generations later and required its own separate round of restoration work along this same shoreline.
The 1960s Onward: Chronic Erosion Becomes a Defining Fact
Beach erosion in Westhampton Beach became a critical, chronic issue beginning in the 1960s, and unlike the 1938 hurricane, this is not a single resolved event but an ongoing engineering reality that has shaped the barrier beach for more than six decades since. A 3.0-square-mile village with only 2.9 square miles of land does not have much room to absorb ground lost to the ocean, and that narrow footprint is part of why erosion here has carried consequences well beyond what a single storm season would suggest.
That erosion produced two of the most consequential events in this market's coastal history: the November 1992 nor'easter, which destroyed more than eighty homes and prompted renewed intervention from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the mid-1990s relocation of fifteen historic houses, physically moved inland to save them from a shoreline that was no longer where it had been when those houses were built. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 later required additional restoration work along this same stretch of coast, a reminder that the erosion story here did not end in the 1990s.
Fifteen Houses Moved: What Is Confirmed and What Is Not
The mid-1990s relocation of fifteen historic houses inland is a genuinely unusual data point for a Hamptons-area market, and it is confirmed research behind this page: fifteen structures were moved to escape an eroding shoreline that had advanced far enough to threaten buildings that, in some cases, likely predated the 1938 hurricane itself. No specific dollar figure for that relocation project, and no specific dollar figure for the November 1992 nor'easter damage, was confirmed in the research behind this page, and neither is invented here.
What that combination of facts should tell a prospective buyer is narrower than it might first sound: this market has a documented history of erosion severe enough to force house relocations and to draw repeated federal intervention, but that history does not, by itself, confirm the condition of any specific lot, any specific existing hardening structure, or any specific current cost. Those are separate questions that require separate, address-specific verification.
The General Rule: New York State DEC and Often the Army Corps of Engineers
No confirmed, named seawall, bulkhead, or revetment project, no specific permit application or outcome, and no construction cost tied to any specific property in Westhampton Beach turned up in the research behind this page, beyond the general, confirmed fact that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers intervened again after the November 1992 nor'easter destroyed more than eighty homes. That is a statement about a general federal response to a documented regional disaster, not a claim about any particular structure, permit, or address, and it should not be stretched into one.
Setting that specific episode aside, the general regulatory framework governing shoreline hardening in New York applies here as it does across the state's coast: structures such as seawalls, bulkheads, and rock revetments built along tidal wetlands or the open shoreline typically require a permit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and work below the mean high water line or affecting navigable water frequently also requires a separate federal permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Local review from the Village of Westhampton Beach layers on top of both. Anyone considering building, replacing, or repairing a hardening structure on this barrier beach should treat the DEC and the Army Corps as the two agencies to contact directly, rather than assuming that a permit exists, or that this market's history of federal intervention after 1992 extends automatically to any individual lot today.
Why a Hardened Shoreline Can Become the Neighbor's Problem
Coastal engineering has a well-documented general principle that matters on a barrier beach this narrow: a hardened structure, by fixing one stretch of shoreline in place, can change how wave energy and sediment move along the shoreline immediately next to it, sometimes shifting erosion onto adjacent, unarmored ground rather than eliminating it. On a barrier beach where fifteen houses have already had to be moved once to escape an advancing shoreline, that general principle is worth taking seriously rather than treating as an abstraction.
This is a general property of shoreline hardening recognized in coastal management broadly, not a specific finding about any stretch of shoreline in Westhampton Beach. A buyer evaluating a property beside an existing hardened structure, or considering building one, should ask what it might mean for the unarmored ground on either side of it, including a neighbor's lot, and that is a question for a coastal engineer familiar with this specific barrier beach, not a listing description.
What to Actually Verify Before Buying Near This Shoreline
Confirmed: Westhampton Beach incorporated as a village in 1928; the Long Island Express hurricane struck on September 21, 1938, destroying nearly all summer homes on the barrier beach and causing twenty-nine deaths; beach erosion became a chronic, critical issue starting in the 1960s; a November 1992 nor'easter destroyed more than eighty homes and prompted renewed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers intervention; and fifteen historic houses were relocated inland in the mid-1990s to escape the eroding shoreline. Not confirmed, and not invented on this page: any specific current seawall, bulkhead, or revetment project, permit application, permit outcome, or construction cost tied to any particular property here, and no 2026 home-price, property-tax, or flood-insurance figure specific to this market.
Before making an offer near this shoreline, ask the seller or listing agent directly whether any hardening structure exists on or near the lot and whether it is permitted, and independently contact the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and, where federal jurisdiction may apply, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to check permit status. Confirm any local zoning or waterfront-overlay requirement with the Village of Westhampton Beach building department, and have a New York-licensed coastal engineer and a real-estate attorney review the specific shoreline condition, including its erosion and flood history, before closing. Nothing on this page is legal, engineering, or financial advice.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data drawn from research on the Village of Westhampton Beach, Town of Southampton, Suffolk County, New York, on Long Island's South Shore. Westhampton Beach incorporated as a village in 1928 and covers a total area of 3.0 square miles, 2.9 of it land and 0.1 water; it recorded a 2020 census population of 2,150, up from 1,902 in the 2000 census, and is served by the Westhampton Beach Union Free School District, its own police, ambulance, and fire departments, the Long Island Rail Road's Montauk Branch, Sunrise Highway (NY 27), and Montauk Highway (CR 80). Three sites are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the Crowther House, the Foster-Meeker House, and the U.S. Post Office. The Long Island Express hurricane struck on September 21, 1938, devastating the community, destroying nearly all summer homes on the barrier beach, and causing twenty-nine deaths in Westhampton Beach specifically, a fully resolved historical disaster. Beach erosion became a critical, chronic issue beginning in the 1960s; a nor'easter in November 1992 destroyed more than eighty homes and prompted renewed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers intervention; fifteen historic houses were physically relocated inland in the mid-1990s to save them from the eroding shoreline; and Hurricane Sandy in 2012 required additional restoration work along the shoreline. No exact current (2026) home-price, property-tax-rate, or flood-insurance figure specific to Westhampton Beach was confirmed, and none is invented here; no specific dollar figure for the November 1992 nor'easter damage or the mid-1990s house-relocation project cost was confirmed, and none is invented here; and no confirmed, named seawall, bulkhead, or revetment project, permit application, permit outcome, or construction cost tied to a specific property here was found, beyond the general, confirmed fact of renewed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers intervention after the November 1992 nor'easter. This page also does not restate Montauk's separate lighthouse and Camp Hero history, East Hampton and Amagansett's separate 1648, 1680, and 1942 history, or Southampton, Bridgehampton, and Sagaponack's separate 1640-founding and three-governance-structure material, as if any of it applied here. What is stated instead is the general New York regulatory framework: shoreline hardening structures typically require a permit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and often a federal permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, plus local review from the Village of Westhampton Beach, and the general coastal-engineering principle that a hardened shoreline can shift erosion onto neighboring, unarmored ground. Confirm any specific structure's permit status directly with the New York State DEC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, confirm local requirements with the Village of Westhampton Beach building department, and consult a New York-licensed coastal engineer and a real-estate attorney before making any purchase or construction decision. Nothing on this page is legal, engineering, or financial advice.