Festivities begin the night before with The East Hampton Historical Society’s Cocktail Party at the Historic Maidstone Club on Friday, November 24th from 6 – 8 p.m. Tickets to the Cocktail Party are $250 each, which includes entry to the House & Garden Tour the following day.  Tickets to the self-guided 2023 East Hampton House & Garden Tour are $85 in advance and $100 on the day of the tour. I just heard tickets are almost sold out, so hurry and purchase tickets HERE or call, 631-324-6850. Let's take a Sneak Peek of the five homes on this year’s tour-

This house has a long history in East Hampton, an unassuming 19th century shingle-style home nearby the ocean in the neighborhood next to Georgica Beach.  The house and owners were the subjects of the 1975 documentary, a 2006 Broadway musical, and 2009 HBO television movie investigating the Beales family (mother and daughters, Big Edie & Little Edie) who were Jackie Kennedy and Lee Radziwell’s cousins. The story is at once sad and enchanting as this "old money'd family fell upon hard times" and we are all collectively captivated. Today, refurbished and renewed, the home is owned by designer, fashion star and entrepreneur, Liz Lange. Lange reimagined Grey Gardens, restored it to a glamorous home with exuberant gardens and outdoor spaces while preserving the past. 

This home in East Hampton Village is a  visual oasis for the eyes with water everywhere- facing the ocean and 300-yards from a pond. Completed in 1960, the cottage was remodeled and redesigned in 2011. Designed by New York City architect Alexander “Sandy” McIlvaine, the house has massive decking, a dramatic swimming pool, and huge pane glass windows, a Modernists Dream! The house overlooks Wiborg Beach which was made famous by Sara Wiborg and Gerald Murphy (“The Fabulous Murphys” international socialites in the 1920’s), who met on the beach and fell in love. The love story continued with current owner Ted Hartley (a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot, investment banker, actor, film producer, and East End artist) and his wife Dina Merrill (1923 – 2017), actress, heiress, socialite, businesswoman, and philanthropist who enjoyed many a romantic, crimson Long Island sunsets together.  

Stately Main Street Manor 

Built in 1799, this home on Main street is a 3-story house originally East Hampton’s Postmaster's house where mail was distributed to residents. It was also the first shingle-style house in East Hampton Village and the second gambrel roof on a Long Island house. Over the centuries the house has been meticulously maintained, restored, and enhanced to bring it up to 21st Century standards. The house has many firsts- and another being in the early 20th century, it was the home of May Groot Manson who was one of East Hampton’s leading suffragettes, and who also hosted the East Hampton Garden Club’s first plant sale on the grounds of this home in the 1910’s.  

The Historic, Devon Colony Enclave

The Devon Colony was formed at the turn of the 20th century by four wealthy businessmen from Cincinnati: Richmond Levering, William Cooper Procter (a grandson of a Procter & Gamble founder, William Procter), Joseph Rawson Jr. and William Stanhope Rowe.

Mr. Levering and Mr. Procter came up with the idea for a residential enclave while on a 1906 hunting trip in the area, known as the Amagansett Highlands because of its lofty location 90 feet above sea level, with Gardiners Bay to the north and the ocean to the south. They bought built grand stucco houses and two smaller ones, founding the Devon Colony. Because their wealth came largely from Procter & Gamble, famous for Ivory soap, the Colony was irreverently nicknamed “Soap Hill.”

Two of the original Devon Colony homes are included in the 2023 East Hampton House & Garden Tour: Windy Dune and The Procter House. These historic homes harken back to a time when the founders of Procter & Gamble made Devon Colony their summer enclave away from their home base in Cincinnati.

-Windy Dune – Built circa 1910 in Amagansett, an original Devon Colony grand stucco house. Originally called Red Roof, the name of the house was changed to Windy Dune after the 1938 hurricane blew off its red roof tiles.