Brewster House In Flanders Is For Sale Again

A 19th-century boarding house in Flanders, which has a history of a few close calls, nearly being torn down, is back on the market.

Captain Robert W. Penney opened the doors of the “Grove House” on Flanders Road—a 28-room hotel house—in 1880, according to the Southampton Town Flanders Hamlet Area report. Standing four-stories tall with central cross gabled dormers, the building was reconstructed before the turn of the century and painted yellow, but parts of the structure date as far back as 1770.

It was frequented by sportsmen staying for long weekend retreats. Next door, the exclusive Flanders Club had its headquarters. By day, guests would be in search of fish and game, or trading stories at the club, but meals and lodging were done at the Grove House.

In 1905, the club signed a 10-year contract with the captain to assume responsibility for the hotel’s operations. Only members, and those who were approved by the club, were allowed to stay at the hotel.

Just shy of decade later, the Brewster family bought the hotel and converted it into a boardinghouse with the addition of a kitchen, and eventually outfitted the house with electricity in 1924. The Brewster House was scarred by the Great Depression in many ways, as sportsman retreats swiftly became a thing of the past. Those with means splurged on bungalows, cottages and even mansions that were being erected on the South Fork.

After World War II, the area was rich with families in search of more permanent homes in what is today Bay View Pines, Waters Edge and Silver Brook. The former Brewster House was used as a police headquarters in the 1950s, and was the site of Police Chief William Ashauer’s suicide in 1959.

Afterward, the former inn was traded just about every other year. In 2007, Eastern Tsalagi Holding Inc.—which acquired the building in 2005 from The Medical Herald Publishing Inc.—sought to repair damage to the building after a fire in 1987. The interior had began to rot from water that leaked through a hole in the roof.

Southampton Town officials debated tearing the house down in 2016, fearing the structure would collapse. The town had required property owner Restoration Equity Group LLC—which acquired the building in 2014 for $150,000—to either make the necessary improvements or face demolition. All the while, the LLC’s $8 million restoration of the Brewster House, including possibly a restaurant and hotel, was supported by the community’s civic associations.

The Town Board opted not to demolish the house and approved the building’s restoration work. But it was eventually “abandoned” and later purchased for $285,000 by SSG RE Holdings LLC, which plans to relist the property “for a much higher value,” according to town property records.

The asking price for the dilapidated building is just shy of $1 million.