The most famous celluloid cottage in the Hamptons is the lavish beachfront property where romance sparks between two age-appropriate characters played by Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson in 2003’s Something’s Gotta Give. To call a home on Billionaire’s Lane a cottage is a bit of a stretch, given the word’s humble beginnings.
Flash back to medieval times, when peasant farmers, “cotters,” lived in simple, small homes. At the turn of the 19th century, when the Long Island Rail Road expanded eastward, beach and fishing shacks became popular among middle-class families and a bohemian set of artists and writers.
In the 1940s, an African American schoolteacher from Brooklyn, Maude Terry, convinced a developer to sell 20 subpar acres in Sag Harbor to middle-class Black families, which, along with two other subdivisions, became known as SANS, a trio of communities that stood as a clarion call of progress during the Jim Crow era. Maude’s sister, Amaza Lee Meredith, an artist, educator, and one of the first Black female architects licensed in the U.S., built the Terry Cottage for her sister, and the family vacationed there for decades.
South of Sag Harbor, in East Hampton, modernist architects began making their mark with low-cost, experimental homes. One of the most memorable examples was the 1946 Quonset House designed by Pierre Chareau for the Abstract Expressionist painter Robert Motherwell. The oddball corrugated-metal structure provided a column-free studio space beloved by historians, which, unfortunately, was razed in 1985.
Below, our contributing architecture editor spotlights an eclectic collection of tiny East End cottages with quirky histories and outsized influence.
ANDREW GELLER: Double Diamond House, Westhampton Beach (1959) and Antler House, East Hampton (1968)
Andrew Geller’s storied legacy is founded on his inventive and modest Hampton Beach cabins built with inexpensive materials like plywood and cedar. These two houses embody the architect’s unpretentious and whimsical style, and in both cases were saved from demolition and restored. The Double Diamond House’s shape is commonly referred to as a pair of kites whose 45-degree pivot creates a central living space braced by bunk bedrooms and two bathrooms, with a snug footprint of 600 square feet.
The Antler defies expectations by locating two bedrooms on the ground floor, a living area on the second floor that extends to a deck, and, above, a treetop loft with forest views. Geller referred to this series of homes as “summer-use playhouses” for working professionals.
COCOON9: Modular Cottage, Hamptons (2015)
In 2015, serial entrepreneur Christopher Burch embarked on a new startup, Cocoon9, to produce affordable, prefabricated, modular homes that doubled as a pool house, writing studio, or guest cottage. The company eventually delivered three versions: CocoonCabin and CocoonStudio (both 480 square feet) and CocoonLite 20 (160 square feet) with variable finishes, foldaway walls, and floors that hid storage, shelves, and Murphy beds. The prototype was erected and displayed long-term on the grounds of the Mecox Gardens furniture store in Water Mill. Unfortunately, Cocoon9 is no longer active.
TOSHIKO MORI: North Fork Beach House (2016)
In 2007, Phoebe and Nicolas de Croisset bought a 1920s fisherman’s cottage, which was subsequently destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. In the aftermath, they tapped Toshiko Mori to design a 1,200-square-foot, two-bedroom home built above the regulation flood height to withstand rising tides and flooding. The entire form is clad in shingles, emphasizing its sculptural qualities, and each façade has a slightly different profile with varied angles and steep roof inclines, preserving the beach views for nearby homeowners.
SILVER SANDS MOTEL AND BEACH BUNGALOWS: Greenport (1957, 2023)
Founded in 1957, Silver Sands Motel and Beach Bungalows was recently refurbished, and the compound features a myriad of cottages, including two bungalows, that dot the 1,400-foot stretch of private beachfront retreat along Pipes Cove. The original owners hired a Fifth Avenue interior design firm with a fashion-forward attitude to craft their beachside rooms. The current owner, Alexander Perros, commissioned Leroy Street Studio to rejuvenate the motel and bungalows, bringing the midcentury vibe into the 2020s. The property also leverages an all-electric ethos (no fossil fuels), resulting in a smaller carbon footprint.
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