The dilapidated house in Freetown, off Springs Fireplace Road, is the last remnant of the Montauketts’ native lands and the only known structure to have been owned by the Montauketts. The house was moved from Indian Field in Montauk (what is now part of Theodore Roosevelt County Park) in 1879 when Arthur Benson purchased the land (a claim that is still disputed). The house was owned by Montauketts called George and Sarah Fowler. Their descendants then lived in the house until the 1980s.
"It is an important symbol of Montaukett history," Town Planning Director Marguerite Wolffsohn told Town Board members in a letter recently. "History tends to record the wealthy and the powerful. George Fowler was neither and we have much less information about the ordinary people in our history. [The house] could be an interpretive tool for understanding the history of Freetown."
And now, fortunately, East Hampton Town plans to shore up the structure immediately to save it, while it develops a plan to rehab and manage the building.
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