SANS Historic District™
Our Story
The history of Long Island includes the well-known and insidious use of illegal redlining against people of color. These practices prevented Black people and others from enjoying the many benefits of the GI Bill for veterans who served in World War II, obtaining bank mortgages for home purchases despite financial worthiness, and using private or even publicly funded recreation facilities.
Other similar subdivisions were formed on adjacent land. These new Sag Harbor individuals — with cash — negotiated land and construction deals to build homes, formed associations, and engaged in cooperative funding arrangements.
In response to being banned from white beach communities, two Ivy League-educated Black women, architect and educator Amaza Lee Meredith and her older sister, schoolteacher Maude Terry, led groups of friends and relatives to purchase second homes and plan a “resort” community from scratch on undeveloped land in Sag Harbor.
The process began in Azurest (1947) and later resulted in the formation of Sag Harbor Hills (1950), and Ninevah Beach (1952). In recognition of their significance, the three communities were added to both the New York State and national historic registries in 2019.*
Why was Historic District designation important to the SANS area?
In 2015, it came to our attention that developers were eyeing the area for land purchasing and demolition to build "McMansion" type homes with 6+ bedrooms, 6+ bathrooms, pools, pool houses and self-contained compound-like residences. For the longer term, it was rumored that the subdivisions with waterfront beach fronts and mooring rights were identified for "Hilton Head-like" resort development.
Evidence of this possibility came in the form of a flood of home purchases...especially beach fronts, realtors calling and circulating business cards to mine interest, and the appearance of targeting older owners with purchase interest. A never before level of home rentals were being rented writ large. We were concerned regarding "finder's fees" being offered.
The Village oversight committee admitted the run on houses and construction in the area. The then head of the ARB stated that there is no protection of our homes since they were not "historic" unlike the protection worthiness attached to most other homes in Sag Harbor.
These factors convinced a number of residents to look into preserving our area and protecting our own worthiness. (A chronology of background actions provided in the Archive.)
*SANS Sag Harbor Organization is no longer pursuing a
local level Historic District
Photo by John Pinderhughes