A Possible New Way Forward Emerges for Stalled Pyrrhus Concer Homestead Project

After a decade being tied up in all manner of legal and regulatory purgatory, it looks like there might finally be a path forward for the Pyrrhus Concer Homestead project in Southampton Village.

Concer was a formerly enslaved man who lived on Pond Lane, a stone’s throw from Lake Agawam, in the mid-1800s. He is considered one of the most important figures in the village’s history, but his story and his legacy have been underrepresented.

Concer was born as an indentured servant and sold into slavery when he was just 5, but he overcame those odds and lived a remarkable life. He became a steerer on whaling ships, a job that took him around the world, and he is believed to be the first Black man to visit Japan when, in 1845, he was aboard the whaling ship Manhattan, which rescued 22 Japanese soldiers and took them back to their country.

He later returned to Southampton, buying land at what is now 51 Pond Lane — on a stretch of the road that was later renamed Concer’s Way, in his honor — at a time when few Black men were landowners. He became a philanthropist, starting an education fund at the First Presbyterian Church, which still exists today, and in retirement established the first-ever Agawam Ferry, across the street from his house.

Concer’s story appears frequently in books about whaling history, and there is a statue of him in Japan — but so far, his own hometown has failed to pay proper homage to his legacy.

Brenda Simmons and Dr. Georgette Grier-Key have been trying to change that over the last 10 years. They formed the Pyrrhus Concer Action Committee and have been working steadfastly to ensure that Southampton Village and Southampton Town make good on an inter-municipal agreement for a plan to build a replica of Concer’s 19th century home and create what they had hoped would be a separate visitors center on the site, which still includes a small cottage.

The plan to restore Concer’s home and build an accompanying visitors center to tell his story and pay homage to his life has hit snag after snag in recent years, and the fact that the plan has been tied up in the regulatory process for years is an added insult on top of an initial injustice, they said.

In 2013, David Hermer and Sylvia Campo brought a lawsuit against the village for its attempt to preserve the Concer home, saying they wanted to tear it down to build their “dream home” on the property. Eventually, the village settled the lawsuit, and Hermer and Campo demolished it — something everyone now agrees should never have been allowed — but they did not build a new home on the property, instead selling it to the Southampton Town Community Preservation Fund for $5 million.

Some of the original beams and other elements of the framework from the home were preserved before the home was demolished, and the plan was to incorporate those beams into a 500-square-foot replica cottage that would have been constructed on the site, along with a visitors center that would serve as a museum to fully pay homage to Concer’s legacy.

But it has been clear in recent years, they said, that the Southampton Village land use boards, primarily the Zoning Board of Appeals, will not grant approval for the visitors center.

The Southampton Village Board has also not seemed to have the appetite for overruling the land use boards, or for scheduling a public hearing on the matter — actions that Simmons and Grier-Key have implored the Village Board, unsuccessfully, to take.

The project was essentially stuck, until the intervention of Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman and State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who intervened to help broker a potential solution.

While nothing is guaranteed, Schneiderman proposed abandoning the stalled plan to build two separate structures — the 500-square-foot cottage replica and visitors center — and instead work on the reconstruction of the home as it existed when it was demolished in 2013.

“When I inserted myself into this process, I knew I needed to see if we could find a path forward, because it was going nowhere,” Schneiderman said. “And it was creating a lot of division and bitterness and anger.

“I didn’t know, jumping in, whether there would be a path forward,” Schneiderman added. “But this idea just sort of fell into our laps.”

Thiele described the new plan as “an elegant solution to a difficult situation.” The reconstruction would essentially be a replica of the house as it was for the last 100 years before it was torn down.

“From a preservation perspective, it’s consistent with the original goal for the property,” Thiele said. “Having [the structure that was torn down] rebuilt, as opposed to just a core of what was left. It’s truer to the original goal, and it provides enough space to provide an opportunity to interpret the site.

“It’s a creative solution, and it meets the need of historic preservation and what Brenda and Georgette are attempting to do with regard to honoring the legacy of Concer,” Thiele added.

He pointed out that the current application will need to be revised and go through the village regulatory process once more, but said he expected it would be “much smoother sailing,” and likely would not require any variances.

Southampton Village Mayor Jesse Warren called the latest development “excellent news,” saying, “We have a viable project we can move forward with, so I think it’s a big win.”

As for Simmons and Grier-Key, their thoughts on the latest development — in what has been a decades-long process filled with far more downs than ups — are more complicated, especially for Grier-Key. She does not view the plan as a compromise. For her, it’s better described as “delayed justice.”

“We’re getting what we asked to do in the beginning,” she said, pointing to the fact that the village never should have allowed the house to be torn down in the first place. That original sin — which, of course, cannot be undone — was the first in a series of injustices that Grier-Key said the project has been subjected to over the last decade.

The idea that a 500-square-foot cottage was acceptable to the ZBA, but a visitors center was not, never sat well with Grier-Key and Simmons. Grier-Key — a preservationist and historian with extensive knowledge and expertise about local history, and local Black history in particular — pointed out that square footage is not believed to be a historically accurate representation of the home where Concer lived.

Then there is the extensive work that Simmons and Grier-Key had already done to bring the plans before the board, and create a vision for what the visitors center would have looked like and what could have been done there to honor Concer’s legacy. While a single, larger structure will, in theory, allow for both a replication of Concer’s home and what it would have looked like while he lived there, as well as a museum and educational element, the scope and scale of what they will be able to do within that single structure as opposed to what they could have done at a separate visitors center will not be the same.

“Now we have to go back to the drawing board and plan out the spaces,” Grier-Key said.

There is also, of course, the issue of trust for Grier-Key and Simmons to contend with. The process, and all its delays, as well as the original failure to prevent the demolition, and the racism and discrimination they both said they have felt at various points throughout the last decade have created a situation where they are constantly left wondering if their voices will be heard — and, more importantly, valued.

“I can’t really be optimistic,” Grier-Key said. “It’s been nine years that the village has caused this problem. My only trust is in what the town is trying to do with leading the process forward.”

She is even hesitant to label the latest development in the Concer Homestead saga as a plan. “We don’t have a plan — it’s an idea,” she said. “We are light years away from that.”

For his part, Schneiderman said he “completely understands” the frustration that Grier-Key and Simmons have expressed, and he’s hoping the pivot can get the wheels rolling on the project again. “I think we can get this in motion,” he said. “I just want to make sure that they don’t feel like we’re doing anything behind their back that could endanger their trust. I wouldn’t want that to ever happen.”

Pyrrhus Concer’s birthday was March 17. A ceremony marking his 209th birthday and honoring his life is taking place at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Bridgehampton on Sunday, March 19. It’s been a long and winding road toward restoring justice and finally giving one of Southampton’s most illustrious residents his due, and Grier-Key said she isn’t assuming anything until “shovels are in the ground.”

“I’m hoping it will come to fruition,” she said. “Right now, it’s just talk.”