Things to Do in Westhampton Beach, New York

A Barrier Beach Village, Not a Suburb by the Sea

Westhampton Beach Village sits on Long Island's South Shore, served by the Long Island Rail Road's Montauk Branch, Sunrise Highway (NY 27), and Montauk Highway (CR 80). It maintains its own police, ambulance, and fire departments and is served by the Westhampton Beach Union Free School District. At 3.0 square miles total -- 2.9 square miles of land and just 0.1 square miles of water -- it is a small, narrow village, and that narrowness is the point: the village occupies a barrier beach, a thin strip of sand separating open ocean from the bay side. Seeing that geography in person, rather than reading about it, is arguably the single most authentic thing to do here.

September 21, 1938: The Long Island Express

On September 21, 1938, the hurricane later nicknamed the "Long Island Express" struck Westhampton Beach directly. It 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 fully resolved history, not an ongoing risk to weigh -- it happened, it is well documented, and it is the single defining event in the village's past. For anyone interested in the history of coastal New York and how barrier-beach communities have been shaped by storms, 1938 is the place to start.

Beach Erosion and the November 1992 Nor'easter

Beach erosion became a chronic, critical problem for Westhampton Beach starting in the 1960s and never really stopped. It came to a head in November 1992, when a nor'easter destroyed more than eighty homes along the shoreline and forced renewed intervention from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Hurricane Sandy, in 2012, required still more restoration work along the same stretch of coast. Together, this is one continuous, decades-long engineering story about what it takes to keep a barrier-beach village intact -- and it is a more severe, better-documented erosion history than most other places on the South Fork.

Fifteen Historic Houses, Moved Inland

One of the more striking, concrete results of that erosion crisis: in the mid-1990s, fifteen historic houses were physically relocated inland to save them from the advancing shoreline. That is not a metaphor -- entire houses were moved off the eroding barrier beach to safer ground. It is a rare, tangible example of a community choosing to preserve its older buildings rather than lose them to the water, and it is worth knowing about even though the relocated houses themselves are private residences today, not a public exhibit.

Three Buildings on the National Register of Historic Places

Westhampton Beach has three listings on the National Register of Historic Places: the Crowther House, the Foster-Meeker House, and the U.S. Post Office. These are the village's confirmed, documented historic landmarks. Listing on the National Register does not necessarily mean a building is open for public tours, so confirm current access, hours, and any visiting arrangements directly before making a trip to see any of them.

Planning a Visit Honestly

What this page confirms: Westhampton Beach's 1928 incorporation and small, 3.0-square-mile barrier-beach footprint; the September 21, 1938 hurricane that destroyed nearly all summer homes on the barrier beach and caused twenty-nine deaths; the chronic erosion that began in the 1960s and the November 1992 nor'easter that destroyed more than eighty homes; the mid-1990s relocation of fifteen historic houses inland; Hurricane Sandy's 2012 restoration work; and the three National Register listings -- the Crowther House, the Foster-Meeker House, and the U.S. Post Office. What it does not do: invent a museum, tour operator, or scheduled event beyond what is documented above, or borrow Montauk's lighthouse-and-Camp-Hero history, East Hampton and Amagansett's windmill and artist-colony material, or Southampton, Bridgehampton, and Sagaponack's village-governance and beach-ranking material.

National Register status is not the same as public visiting hours, and no specific current home price, property-tax rate, or flood-insurance figure for Westhampton Beach is asserted here. Confirm current access and schedules directly with the village before planning a trip. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.