A Sea Monster Comes To East Hampton

Pitching forward and gliding up, then forward again, a man in a cherry-picker inched his way toward the Thomas and Mary Nimmo Moran Studio to attach a new, distinctive weather vane and finial to the top of a turret. It marked another leg of a long restoration process for this historic East Hampton structure.

“It’s pretty thrilling. Most things are wonderful, but the weather vane is so eccentric,” said Richard Barons following the installment on May 20. The director of the Thomas Moran Trust and the East Hampton Historical Society has been overseeing the project, and the weather vane in particular.

Studying early photographs, restoration consultants spied a worn fish-looking form with a big flat head and a curly tail. “We realized it was a sea creature. It wasn’t a whale, it wasn’t a sturgeon or something like that, because it had all these little points on it,” said Mr. Barons, who also mined through trade catalogues of weather vanes from the 1880s as well as a book that had pictures of sea monsters from 17th- and 18th-century maps. What emerged was a reimagined sea monster. Originally made out of wood and rather fragile, its descendant is now weather-resistant copper, made by The Irony in East Hampton.

Weather vanes were very popular during the 19th century, and most were made out of copper. “They could be very exotic. They could symbolize what your hobby was—a fire company would probably have a fire engine,” said Mr. Barons. The sea monster was likely inspired by the nearby ocean. It is in line with the style of the house, which is reminiscent of a small castle or English manor, with its Gothic arches for the dormer windows, and of course, the turret.

Built in 1884, the Queen Anne-style studio is on Main Street across from Town Pond and down the street from Guild Hall. Designed by Mr. Moran, who was a premier landscape painter, it has an eclectic mix of influences. After Mr. Moran bought the property and started building what would become the village’s first artist’s studio, he began collecting accents from buildings and Greek revival townhouses that were being either renovated or torn down in New York City during the 1880s. On the ground floor of the studio, for example, a railing is supported by two differently ornate wooden posts, while some of the windows are from an old candy store, and the fireplace mantel is from a townhouse that was built around 1790.

The Morans spent summers in East Hampton from 1885 to 1926. Their daughter, Ruth B. Moran, lived in the house until she died in 1948. Condie Lamb, also an artist, and his wife, Elizabeth Lamb, then bought the Moran property and worked to get the home declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965. Upon Mr. Lamb’s death in 1990, the home was bequeathed to Guild Hall, with a life tenancy for Mrs. Lamb. She died in 2004. In 2008, Guild Hall deeded the property to the Thomas Moran Trust so that it could be restored.

Currently, the house is a display of construction—workers on scaffolding; long wooden beams lying in heaps; the original front door perched on its side, waiting to be returned to its rightful spot. There are many signs of progress, too, as original pieces are restored and reinstalled, to say nothing of the exterior, which is nearly done. Almost 50 percent of the shingles are already on and the final windows will soon be installed. In two years, the building will be open to the public.

“We’re hoping the weather vane is a nice way to get people to know that the restoration is ongoing,” said Mr. Barons, adding it might also be a gentle nudge that more fundraising will be necessary. The project needs an infusion of another $1.2 million to reach completion.