Sag Harbor Yacht Club Spinoff Aims To Convert House Into Clubhouse And Museum

Now that Sag Harbor Village’s year-and-a-half-long building moratorium is over, one of the first major development proposals to appear along Sag Harbor’s waterfront will not — surprise, surprise — be for a new theater, but a more modest proposal at the other end of Bay Street.

The Maycroft Club, a spinoff of the Sag Harbor Yacht Club, will soon unveil plans to transform the former residence of antiques dealer Michael Eicke on Burke Street into a clubhouse, library and museum.

Initial plans call for the house to remain as is on the exterior, although extensive interior renovations will be required. The biggest single change is that the front yard, which extends from Bay Street about halfway to Rysam Street, will be turned into a 31-space parking lot that will be screened from the street.

The residentially zoned property is directly across Bay Street from the yacht club and faces the parking lot of the American Legion and the back of 34 Bay Street, the commercial building that is home to the Sag Harbor Cycle Company, geekhampton, and Fighting Chance.

Attorney Dennis Downes, who is a board member of both the Sag Harbor Yacht Club and the new Maycroft Club, said a formal application for the project will be made soon. Last spring, with the moratorium still in effect, Downes made the rounds of village regulatory boards to give their members a heads-up about the club’s intentions.

“This is a building that is going to get very little use,” Downes said. Besides monthly meetings, the building “will be available certain of the year for the public to go in,” he added.

The plans call for there to be a nautical library and displays of memorabilia and artifacts from the yacht club and other clubs as well as members’ personal collections.

“It’s pretty much going to be a place for people who are interested in Sag Harbor’s nautical history,” Downes said.

He added that the house has a kitchen and two bedrooms, but how they will be used, if at all, remains undecided.

According to the new club’s mission statement, its purpose will be the “preservation of the local community’s maritime lore and traditions and to instill, educate, enhance, promote and perpetuate” interest in maritime culture and history. A special exception permit will be required for the property to be transformed to an institutional use such as a museum.

Downes said while the Sag Harbor Yacht Club was willing to buy the property, it was not interested in running a museum and library, hence the reason for the new not-for-profit entity. He said the new Maycroft Club only has five members, including himself and Steve Brennan, who are both members of the Sag Harbor Yacht Club’s board of directors.

“The yacht club is not designed for what we are proposing this to be,” Downes said. “The club has maybe a couple of hundred members. How many are really interested in maritime history?”

He said the Maycroft Club would find out “when push comes to shove and you have to pay dues and maintenance fees.”