"We're excited to have, after all these many months, completed the restoration and reinstalling of the furnishings," Steve Long, executive director of the East Hampton Historical Society, told The East Hampton Star days before the Mulford Farmhouse reopened on July 4. "We will be ready to go."
Three months later, the house at 10 James Lane is the starting point for two of the busiest community Saturdays on the village calendar. On October 10 it hosts the ARF Hamptons Stroll to the Sea. On October 17 it hosts the Historical Society's Semiquincentennial History Festival, with the Greater East Hampton Chamber of Commerce's first James Lane Street Fair running alongside. Most people who walk past that lawn have known the farmstead all their lives. Inside, though, the house now tells a different story than it did a year ago.
What the paint analysis turned up
This restoration was the first comprehensive interior renewal since the Historical Society acquired the property in 1948. The carpentry, plasterwork, and painting were overseen by the preservation consultant Robert Hefner. The work rested on an in-depth analysis of the interior finishes. That analysis showed that Col. David Mulford had his painters alternate an expensive Prussian blue pigment with copper acetate on the parlor woodwork, a display of his wealth and status.
So the parlor you walk into now has the colors a visitor would have seen in 1776, recovered from the layers underneath. The Society's announcement names Ralph Lauren, the Ladies Village Improvement Society, Marsha Soffer, and the New York Chapter of the Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America among the restoration's supporters.
The Star describes the farmhouse as one of the most significant and intact English Colonial farmsteads in the country, with an exterior and interior layout largely unchanged since 1776. The Society dates the Mulford Barn on the same property to 1721.
Sixteen people in one house
The new interpretation is built around who lived there. According to the Suffolk County census, 16 people lived in the farmhouse in 1776: Mulford, his wife, Phebe, their six children, and enslaved people of color. Among the enslaved residents were Acca, Daniel, Jack, and Phyllis, whose lives and labor were integral to running the household.
Mulford commanded a militia regiment, Long Island's equivalent of the Minutemen. According to the Historical Society, he was also the region's largest slaveholder. The Star connects his story to what the historian Edmund Morgan called the American paradox: many of the country's leading advocates for liberty also took part in chattel slavery. The Society also says the enslaved people's labor kept the household running during the British occupation of Long Island.
"Both the exterior and interior layout of the farmhouse remain largely unchanged from how they looked in 1776."
That line from the Star's reopening coverage explains the pull of this house. The rooms where those 16 people lived are the rooms visitors walk through today. If you'd rather go at your own pace, the Society offers a digital guide on the Bloomberg Connects app. There's also an augmented-reality tour on the 1776AR app, narrated by Hugh King, the East Hampton Town and Village historian.
October 10: the dog walk leaves as the doors open
The Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons holds its 33rd annual Stroll to the Sea Dog Walk on Saturday, October 10, with a rain date of Sunday, October 11. Festivities start at 9 a.m. at Mulford Farm, where designer and entertainer Isaac Mizrahi joins the prewalk program and awards presentation. Before the walk to Main Beach steps off at 11 a.m., there's vendor shopping, food, music, and family activities.
This year adds three dog contests: Best Ears, Best Dressed Duo, and Best Bark from a Human. Registration covers an event T-shirt with original artwork by Mizrahi, a tote bag, refreshments, and access to the vendor booths. Proceeds go to ARF's rescue and adoption work, and details are at arfdogwalk.org.
The timing works out neatly. The Historical Society's calendar opens the farmhouse to visitors from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. that same Saturday and again on Sunday, October 11. The house opens just as the walkers head down James Lane toward the ocean. Anyone who doesn't join the walk, or who comes back from Main Beach with an hour to spare, can step into the restored parlor before the afternoon is out.
The Springs Food Pantry's eighth annual Chowdah Chowdown also falls on October 10, from noon to 3 p.m. on the patio at Springs Tavern and Grill, 15 Fort Pond Boulevard. The community listing promises all-you-can-eat chowder and soup and music, with tickets at $50 plus fees.
October 17: the festival moves out onto James Lane
A week later, the farmstead is the setting for the event its restoration was timed toward. The Historical Society's Semiquincentennial History Festival marks America's 250th anniversary on Saturday, October 17, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Mulford Farm. Admission is free, and donations are welcome. The program includes colonial demonstrations, historical reenactors, performances, and live music.
The newer piece is the Chamber's first James Lane Street Fair, which 27east reports will stretch the day along James Lane with local businesses, food trucks, beer and wine tastings, and family activities. As of early October, neither the Chamber nor the Society has published names of participating vendors, food trucks, or reenactment groups. If you're planning around a particular business, check with the Chamber that week.
The farmhouse isn't on the Society's regular open-house calendar for October 17. It is listed again the next day, Sunday, October 18, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. That Sunday may be the quieter time to see the rooms after a day of reenactors on the lawn.
The rest of the Society's season, all on foot from James Lane
The farmhouse is the centerpiece, but the Society has built a whole October calendar around it. Most of it is within walking distance of Mulford Farm, and most of it tells parts of the same local history that the restored parlor opens up:
- Through Friday, October 9, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: "Watercolors of the Whaling Industry by Claus Hoie" at Clinton Academy.
- Friday, October 9, 5 p.m.: A tour of the South End Burying Ground with Town Historian Hugh King, billed for the Halloween season. Tickets run free to $12.
- Friday, October 16, 5 p.m.: "Scrimshaw and East Hampton Whaling," an artist's talk and hands-on workshop on the carvings sailors made from whale teeth and bone during long voyages. Tickets run free to $5.
- Friday, October 23, 5 p.m.: The "Goody Garlick" walking tour, which is already sold out.
- Saturday, October 24, 11:30 a.m.: The LVIS 33rd Annual Landmarks Luncheon. The speaker is architectural conservator and former New York City Landmarks Preservation Commissioner Michael Devonshire, presenting "The Good Fight: Why We Preserve."
- Friday, October 30, 5 p.m.: A second "Goody Garlick" walking tour, with tickets still offered at free to $12.
The Goody Garlick tour reaches back further than the farmhouse does. It begins in February 1658, 35 years before the Salem witch trials, when Elizabeth Gardiner Howell of East Hampton fell ill shortly after giving birth. With one date already sold out, anyone hoping to go should book the October 30 tour soon.
LVIS was one of the restoration's named supporters, so the October 24 luncheon gives a preservation talk to an audience that helped pay for the house down the street.
Guild Hall opens two exhibitions the same day. "ac• qui• si• tions" features recent additions to the collection, and "Priscilla Heine: Bloom" runs through November 29. Critic Amei Wallach talks with Heine there on November 14 at 3 p.m.
Farmhouse open days left this month
The Society's calendar lists the Mulford Farmhouse as open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, October 10 and 11, Sunday, October 18, Saturday and Sunday, October 24 and 25, and Saturday, October 31. Admission is $12 for nonmembers and free for members. The calendar doesn't yet list open days after October 31, so if you're thinking of a November visit, check easthamptonhistory.org closer to the date.
If a restored parlor or a 1721 barn on James Lane has you thinking about the older houses in your own part of East Hampton, Dawn Watson is happy to talk through what preservation means for the village's historic homes. Connect with Dawn to start your Hamptons search.
