A Village For Art's Sake, Or Was It?

It was a decade ago when Lori Zabar discovered a small, unfamiliar triangle on a map of the East End that read: “The Art Village.”

She was working as a research assistant in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the time and, being naturally curious, pointed it out to her colleague, Cynthia Schaffner. She just so happened to be the perfect person to ask: a descendant from the long line of Halseys in Southampton, and somewhat familiar with the modest neighborhood of cottages and art buildings in Shinnecock Hills—but not enough to either of their satisfaction.

And so began five years of research, which was eventually published as a 50-page article in Winterthur magazine in 2010, and the topic of a recent lecture hosted by the Southampton Historical Museum.

“I don’t think I can even quantify the number of hours we spent researching,” Ms. Zabar said before the talk began. “It’s a labor of love.”

The story begins in 1891, when Shinnecock Hills Golf Club opened its doors. It happened to be the same year amateur landscape painter Janet Hoyt founded the Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art—and appointed William Merritt Chase as director.

This was not entirely coincidental, Ms. Zabar and Ms. Schaffner have concluded. Ms. Hoyt was daughter of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Salmon P. Chase and the wife of real estate mogul William Hoyt. She knew her way around the country’s wealthiest circles, the art historians explained, drawing out collectors, including Southampton’s Samuel Parrish, and artists, including Chase.

By appointing him director, the art school’s administration garnered nationwide attention for the new undertaking, as he was the most famous painter in America at the time.

The summer art school ran from 1891 until 1902 and, in its 12 years, it became the most popular plein air program in the country. It taught 1,000 students during its tenure. To be there, each artist paid about $8 per week and lived in the cottages that make up the Art Village—which, for the first time, has been uncovered for what it was.

“As we did our research and got to know Samuel Parrish and Janet Hoyt, we realized that this endeavor was not purely philanthropic,” Ms. Schaffner explained. “All these people had their own interests.”

The Art Village—as the summer plein air school eventually became known—sat on land that, at the time, belonged to the Long Island Improvement Company, a subsidiary of the Long Island Rail Road, until the art school administration eventually bought it up.

“The establishment of these two American institutions on the East End was the overall vision of Austin Corbin, the president of the Long Island Rail Road,” Ms. Schaffner said. “He got European investors to invest in building up the East Coast and the shores of Long Island, and when people heard that they had all of this money, Ms. Hoyt and Samuel Parrish decided that they wanted to be a part of this investment. The idea was to make Shinnecock Hills a resort location adjacent to Southampton.”

“Ms. Hoyt had started this kind of outdoor living in Southampton—grass tennis courts, sailing—and she looked at Shinnecock Hills as an opportunity to duplicate what she had done in Southampton,” Ms. Zabar said, adding with a laugh. “She was a very smart lady.”