East Hampton Town Board Plots Path Forward for Historic Osborn Homestead

Now that the 28-acre Wainscott parcel that will be known as the John Osborn Homestead has been purchased, the East Hampton Town Board has to plot out the land’s future.

Acquired late last year for a record-breaking price of $56 million, the property is home to two now-landmarked historic structures: The 1904 Louisa Edwards Osborn house and the 17th century Osborn barn.

At a work session on November 12, the potential for agricultural use came into focus; Councilman Ian Calder-Piedmonte, a farmer who served as the liaison to the draft management plan, asked that the Town Board strike one point that recommended farmers use organic materials and not put up deer fencing, should the land be farmed.

“Now, to be clear, the committee felt fairly strongly, as did the community, frankly, that there should be no deer fence there because the vista is a primary goal,” he said. “That’s expressed elsewhere in this document — that the vista is a primary goal. I worry about the precedent of getting very specific about how it may be used for agriculture, if agriculture is chosen, and I don’t think that would set a good precedent.”

With a request for proposals around the corner, Calder-Piedmonte said he doesn’t think the line item barring deer fencing is helpful or necessary.

“When we purchased this, it was historical and agricultural at the time, and I think we have to be very careful about what restrictions we place on agricultural operations,” said Councilman Tom Flight, acknowledging that preventing degradation of water quality in the area is critical.

However, Flight said, for agricultural operations to be viable, deer fence would be necessary, and he would be wary of being overly restrictive of what farmers can do.

The Town Board has enumerated four purposes for acquisition of the John Osborn Homestead: open space preservation, agricultural land, historic preservation and improvement of water quality. This draft management plan will plot the course forward for the land.

Some in the community have called for the Town Board to landmark the entire property, including a third building that is described as a small accessory farm building. In March, the Town Board left open the option of landmarking the whole property — but it pressed on at the time with just landmarking the two buildings, the 1904 house and 17th century barn.

Jaine Mehring, who spoke only as a Wainscott Heritage Project board member, continued those pleas at a Town Board work session on November 12.

“As you will recall, Wainscott Heritage Project asserts that it remains absolutely essential that a full local historic designation be established by this board over the entire parcel of 66 Wainscott Main Street,” Mehring said.

The Town Board left open the possibility of using a second work session to discuss the draft management plan before it goes to a public hearing.