A Tip Of The Hat To Lyzon

From its humble beginnings as a general store, to its years as a millinery shop that prompted a U.S. Ambassador to France to credit it for “bringing American style to Paris,” the Lyzon Hat Shop in Hampton Bays brought high fashion to the East End of Long Island, and the world.

The Lyzon Hat Shop started its life as a general store owned by Barney Smith and was located on the south side of Montauk Highway. In 1854, Elisha King bought the building and relocated to its current location at 116 West Montauk Highway and continued to run it as a general store.

In 1907, fire broke out in the building, and eventually spread to the United Methodist Church and damaged several other buildings.

The building remained damaged and vacant after the fire, until Walter Howard King and his wife, Helen, returned to Hampton Bays in the 1910s to care for his ill mother, Lillian.

Walter King was born and raised in Hampton Bays but was living in New York City after studying commercial art and window dressing at the Pratt Institute. To pass the time, Walter and Helen began making hats on the front porch of the Prosper King House, using material that survived the general store fire.

Walter and Helen soon found themselves with a relatively successful hat making business, originally called Camp King Studio, after the family compound. It would take a trip to France before World War I for the shop to come into its own.

Walter was invited to a fashion show in Paris, and it was during that trip that he decided to become a milliner in earnest. It was also on that trip that Camp King Studio became Lyzon Hats. The name had a mystical origin.

“When he was coming back [to America] on the ship, he saw the name ‘Lyzon’ in the waves,” said Brenda Sinclair Berntson, president of the Hampton Bays Historical Society. Walter felt that the name represented a more cosmopolitan image that he wanted to present to his clientele.

By 1920, the Kings had rebuilt the fire-damaged former general store and added a second story, enlisting local carpenter Elmer Jackson to create the space. He added woodwork and the sweeping staircase leading to the second floor. Shortly thereafter, a camp theater from U.S. Army Camp Upton in Yaphank was purchased and moved to Hampton Bays to serve as the hat factory. The building was attached to the back of the hat shop, with access on the second floor.

The 1920s were a boon for the Kings. The close proximity of New York City and high society enclaves like Southampton, Westhampton and East Hampton brought in the type of clientele that the Kings were trying to cultivate.

The Kings wanted the shop to be an experience for their bougie customers. Walter had his brother play piano while the ladies shopped to add to the upper crust atmosphere. He also had card tables placed on the front lawn of the shop so that the chauffeurs had a place to sit, have a lemonade, and play cards and wait while their employers met with King to design their hats.

“He always said that he made one hat per person,” Sinclair Berntson said of Walter King. “So if you came in, the hat was made to your specifications for you.” The Kings enlisted local gamekeepers from the large estates to provide feathers and fur for the bespoke hats, and Helen King made trips into the city’s garment district every Saturday for ribbons and accouterments to dress them.

Word got around about the Kings’ work, and soon wealthy and well-known customers were coming to the shop from all over to purchase them.

For her wedding in 1956 to Prince Rainier III of Monaco, Academy Award-winning actress and style icon Grace Kelly commissioned the Kings to design hats for her bridal party. Princess Grace purchased many hats from the Kings over the years.

In the early 1960s, Helen King had a surprise visitor to the shop.

“Mrs. King was sitting there, she was alone, and a guy came in with a suit and sunglasses on, and he said, ‘Are you alone?’ And she said, ‘Yes, but why?’ And he said, ‘I have a customer who would like to come in’ — but she didn’t want to come in unless there was nobody here.

“So he walked around a little bit and looked around, and came back with Jackie Kennedy.”

By the mid-1960s, Walter King was ill, and the shop ceased production of hats. King died in 1968, bringing a end to Lyzon Hats.

The building remained in the family, operated as an art gallery by Hewitt “Hooty” King. When Hewitt died in 1995, the factory portion of the Lyzon Hat Shop fell into disrepair. It was demolished by Southampton Town in 2005.

The hat shop itself then was donated to the Hampton Bays Historical and Preservation Society by then-owners the Whalen Family in 2006. The Historical Society then donated the shop to Southampton Town, and restoration began in 2016. On June 23, 2018, the Lyzon Hat Shop had its dedication and was opened to the public under the auspices of the Hampton Bays Historic and Preservation Society.

The Lyzon Hat Shop will open starting on May 26, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and will be open on Friday and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., through the summer. For more information or to arrange a tour, call the Hampton Bays Historical and Preservation Society at 631-728-0887.