~ Town House, c. 1731 ~Unique among Long Island buildings, the Town House is the only existing town government meeting place to survive from the Colonial period on Long Island.
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| Click for larger picture | The Town Trustees who met there determined the affairs of the township by collecting taxes, passing local laws, administering public lands, maintaining the church and schoolhouse and hiring the minister and teacher.
The Town House is the earliest surviving one-room schoolhouse on Long Island. Studies were very basic: reading, writing, and enough arithmetic to keep an account book.
Teachers rarely had a very extensive education and there were virtually no textbooks or paper to use; learning was accomplished by copying on slate. School was dismissed from January through March during the whaling season where everyone, including children, had to help in carving the whales.
After 1845, the building continued to be used as a meeting place for the Town Trustees. It was later used as a barbershop, an interior decorator's studio and the town welfare headquarters during the Depression. In 1958, the East Hampton Historical Society acquired and moved the Town House to a lot adjacent to the Clinton Academy.
- Permanent Exhibit
- 18th Century Schooling
- Hours of Operation
- Open Memorial Day weekend through Columbus Day weekend
- - Saturday 10 to 5, Sunday 12 to 5
- - Also open Friday 10 to 5 in July and August
- Admission is free with visit to Clinton Academy.
The museum is located at 149 Main Street, East Hampton, adjacent to the Clinton Academy.
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