Historic Bridgehampton Building Gets Facelift

BRIDGEHAMPTON, NY — An iconic structure in Bridgehampton is undergoing a facelift.

Recently, members of the Southampton and Bridgehampton Museum were onhand for the lifting and installation of a decorative rooftop cupola on the Nathanial Rogers House.

A boundary line fence will also be added.

Known for its Greek Revival architecture and one of the "few full temple front Greek Revival" houses on Long Island the structure represents three historic construction periods, according to the Bridgehampton Museum's website.

The original house, built by Abraham T. Rose about 1824 was a post and beam home measuring 25 feet by 40 feet with two main rooms upstairs and two downstairs, separated by a central hallway, the site said.

Rogers, a well-known miniature portraitist who remodeled the home in 1840, gave life to the Greek Revival style, adding rooms, changing the roof line and creating porches, including the large portico in front, the site said.

According to the Museum, the final remodel took place in 1894 when the home was purchased by the Hedges and Hopping families; the the Hampton House resort was then unveiled. Later, whaling Captain James R. Huntting owned the house, followed by Mary S. DeBost, and then, John Hedges and his son-in-law Frank Topping whose Hampton House Inn welcomed tourists to the South Fork, the site said.

The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

And, the Museum said in a release, the recent addition of the cupola and replicated roofline balustrade will convey the "true sense of the design by Nathaniel Rogers."

Once interior and exterior restoration is complete, the Nathaniel Rogers House, which is under the stewardship of the Bridgehampton Museum, will serve as a center for historical research and for programs to celebrate the history and cultural traditions of the area.