Concer House Declared Historic Landmark By Southampton Village

After years of frustration, battles and setbacks, the historic piece of property at 51 Pond Lane in Southampton Village is finally getting the recognition it deserves.

In late January, the Southampton Architectural Review Board voted to designate the Pyrrhus Concer Homestead as a historic landmark.

The designation was the result of years of hard work by several individuals, most notably Dr. Georgette Grier-Key, the executive director and chief curator of the Eastville Historical Society, and Brenda Simmons, the executive director of the Southampton African-American Museum and the founder of the Pyrrhus Concer Action Committee. In December, Dr. Grier-Key made a presentation to the board, outlining the historical significance of the property.

Sarah Kautz of Preservation Long Island also made a presentation about the historical and cultural significance of Pyrrhus Concer and his homestead, and the board also received letters in support of the landmark designation from the Preservation League of New York State, AIA Peconic, and New York State Assemblyman Fred. W. Thiele Jr.

The property at 51 Pond Lane was the home of Pyrrhus Concer, a formerly enslaved Black man who worked as a whale steerer on The Manhattan, a whaling ship that rescued 22 Japanese sailors in 1845. When they brought the rescued sailors safely home, Concer and the crew became the first Americans to visit Japan, and Concer is believed to have been the first Black man to visit Japan at the time.

Concer continued to lead an impressive life when he returned to the U.S., becoming a landowner — something uncommon at that time for Black men — starting an education fund at the First Presbyterian Church that still exists today, and founding the first ever Agawam Ferry. He overcame a unimaginably difficult start in life, being sold into slavery at the age of 5 and then spending his formative years working aboard whaling ships.

There is a statue of Concer in Japan, and his legacy and memory are honored in that country to this day, which makes the fact that it took so long for the powers that be in his hometown to give him similar recognition painful to contend with for Ms. Simmons and others who have long fought to properly honor his legacy. But last week, Ms. Simmons said she was happy to see that such an important figure in the town’s history was finally getting his due.

“I’m excited and ecstatic,” she said, pointing out that the Concer Homestead will become the second African American site to be landmarked in the village, joining the Southampton African-American museum, which sits on the property that used to house Randy’s Barber Shop, and is tentatively set to open on June 19, also known as Juneteenth.

It’s been a long road to historical landmark designation for the homestead. The village failed to put the homestead on the historical registry in the 1980s, and in 2013, Ms. Simmons heard that a couple was planning on tearing down the old house to build a private residence of their own, despite the fact that a deed, from the 1800s, proving Concer’s ownership of the home existed and was presented to the board by Ms. Simmons. When presented with the deed by Ms. Simmons, the ARB then denied the application to demolish the home, but after the couple sued the village for $10 million, the village subsequently settled with them and they ultimately did demolish the historic home. Some remnants of the original structure were preserved, and will be used in the rebuild of the home, but much of it was destroyed.

The couple eventually put the property on the market, and Southampton Town bought the property, using CPF funds.

Now that the property is both in safe hands and properly honored and recognized with the landmark designation, the work of moving toward the ultimate goal — honoring Concer’s legacy in the way it deserves — can go forward.

The plan is to reconstruct the house, using as many of the pieces from the original structure (which have been stored on a trailer that sits on the property) as possible, and then build another structure on the homestead property that will serve as a museum/educational center, to host workshops, lectures and celebrations. Several artifacts that were unearthed from the property during an archaeological dig in 2016 will be on display there as well, such as a calligraphy brush that is believed to be a gift to Concer from the Japanese sailors he helped rescue.

Ms. Simmons spoke about how important it is to bring the legacy of Pyrrhus Concer to life, and how his contributions to the community should be viewed not just as Black history but as a vital part of the history of the town and village as a whole.

“Especially in the times we’re living in, with the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s really critical at this time,” she said. “This will serve an educational purpose for the whole community.”

For years, it’s been easy for the homestead and everything it represents to go undetected; there is a small plaque on the property, which sits across from Lake Agawam, but without anything else to draw the eye, the vital history of Concer and the hugely important role he played in the community would continue to be forgotten, erased. Reconstructing the house to replicate the way it was when Concer lived there in the 1800s, and creating another building open to the public for learning and embracing that history is a way to restore that memory and honor Concer’s legacy; a way to make it impossible for people to ignore his contributions. Getting to that finish line was the motivation for Ms. Simmons and Dr. Grier-Key during the years they fought for the recognition, even as they encountered resistance along the way.

“We have to continue to keep this in the forefront,” Ms. Simmons said. “Because people need to hear it. They say when you’re learning something, you have to hear it a certain number of times before you finally get it.

“I’m ecstatic that this has come to the place it’s at after eight years of fighting for it,” she continued, holding back tears. “All the sleepless nights were worth it.”

The timeline for the project is still in the early stages, but Nicole Christian, a grant writer who is involved in the project, offered some projections. Ms. Christian has worked on grant funding and administration for large scale capital projects such as the Sag Harbor Cinema; buildings that “have a purpose,” as she says.

“Pyrrhus Concer was known locally and nationally, he was a Black man who was a leader in the whaling industry, and that story must be maintained and shared and integrated into the fabric of what it means to be an American living on Long Island,” she said.

Ms. Christian has been working alongside Dr. Grier-Key and Ms. Simmons, helping them prepare to present plans and a budget at the next Southampton Town work sessions. Some funding for the project will come from both the town and village, but Ms. Christian will work on securing additional funds, from New York State and other foundations interested in supporting the project, which she said will come in at around $3.6 million. Town CPF funds will cover up to $1 million for the construction of the home, and roughly $500,000 has been set aside from the village for project, some of which has already been spent on design plans for the home restoration. Private funding, foundational support and possible aid from the state will make up the difference for the project. Ms. Christian said that a price tag estimated to fall under $4 million is “a steal for a project of this magnitude.”

The timeline for when construction will begin is still murky, Ms. Christian said, because there are still several benchmarks that need to be cleared. Because both the town and village are involved as part of an intermunicipality agreement, extra time is added in that aspect as well. The project will need to be put out to bid to secure a contractor. Ms. Christian said a “very optimistic” possibility for groundbreaking is September, but she said it was more likely to stretch into 2022.

Ms. Christian and Ms. Simmons said Village Mayor Jesse Warren and Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman have been fantastic so far throughout the process, and Ms. Simmons also gave credit to Mr. Thiele for also being supportive and helpful throughout the process.