Is Pond Lane Protected as a 'Historic' Road? Both State and Local Experts Say No.

When it comes to the increasingly contentious debate surrounding a proposal to close Pond Lane in Southampton Village to vehicle traffic, in order to accommodate a larger plan to build an 11-acre public garden and expansion of Agawam Park that would provide lakefront access to the public, the word “historic” regularly appears.

Some residents who are opposed to the idea of closing the road, which has been operating in the village since horses and buggies were the primary mode of transportation, claim that it should remain open because it is listed on the state and national historic register.

That is not true, according to both the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and a local historian who has made a career in the preservation space.

“Pond Lane is not a contributing feature to the state or national register-listed Village of Southampton NR district, nor is it independently listed on the state or national register,” said Daniel Mackay, the deputy commissioner for historic preservation and deputy state historic preservation officer.

Mackay said that only 13 roads or routes in the state are specifically nominated to the state and national register, including: Albany Post Road, Bear Mountain Bridge Road, Bronx River Parkway, Eastern Parkway, Long Island Motor Parkway, New York State Route 431, Ocean Parkway (Brooklyn), Old Albany Post Road, Park Avenue Viaduct, Storm King Highway, Susquehanna Turnpike, Taconic State Parkway, and Union Square, Manhattan.

“Roads and road materials are called out as contributing features to state and national register districts in numerous other nominations across the state,” he added. “And 43 other states have roads that are NR-listed resources; think Route 66, for example.”

Zach Studenroth is a local historic preservation consultant who has decades of experience and has worked in conjunction with the State Historic Preservation Office since the 1970s.

It is true that a portion of Pond Lane does fall within the boundaries of the Southampton Village historic district, but because it is not listed as a contributing structure to the district, Studenroth said an argument based on historic preservation does not hold up as an adequate defense for keeping the road open to vehicular traffic, calling any historic preservation-based argument “utterly irrelevant.”

“There’s no historical feature that would be lost if that roadway were to be closed off at both ends,” he said.