A Place Of History

What makes a place special? Not an entire community, but an actual place — a location, a street address? What makes it historic? We designate historical markers to battlefields, but also to places where less bloody events took place, or where important people were born. Sometimes we honor a place simply because it has survived the massive changes of more than a century.

One place that did not survive long was The Swamp, the discotheque that was based on the property in Wainscott that is now an East Hampton Town-owned park, the Wainscott Green. But for a quarter century, until it closed in 2001, it was an important oasis for the East End’s LGBTQ+ community, long before it was called that, and at a time when many people of all genders felt compelled to keep their true identities under wraps. At The Swamp, they could be themselves, and they could gather safely and joyously. The roots of community and activism planted there are still bearing fruit today. It’s hard to imagine the changes of the past decade or more without places like The Swamp.

The town has agreed to allow the nonprofit Hamptons Pride to place historical surveyor’s markers at the location of the four corners of The Swamp, which was torn down in 2018. Hamptons Pride founder Tom House has bigger plans for the site: He hopes not just for a marker outlining the nightclub’s role but a “functional outdoor social area that can be used by everybody on the East End,” echoing the way it served as an essential gathering place. He also hopes for a memorial to the many lives lost to HIV/AIDS.

In a piece House wrote for The East Hampton Star, the former bartender at The Swamp calls the site “a psychic gay burial ground so deep it approaches the literal.” It is a place where both joy and sorrow reside — and that makes it historic. It was a birthplace of sorts, and a battleground of sorts.

House’s idea has gotten initial support from the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee, which pushed for the preservation of the site as the Wainscott Green, and a fundraiser in September will support the cause. It’s a noble one, and town officials should open up a more vibrant conversation with Hamptons Pride and the CAC about an appropriate way of marking what is, in a sense, hallowed ground for so many.