Sag Harbor, New York

Infobox Settlement
official_name = Sag Harbor, New York
settlement_type = Village
nickname =
motto =

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imagesize = 250px
image_caption = Sag Harbor Street Scene


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mapsize = 250x200px
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subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = United States
subdivision_type1 = State
subdivision_name1 = New York
subdivision_type2 = County
subdivision_name2 = Suffolk
government_footnotes =
government_type =
leader_title =
leader_name =
leader_title1 =
leader_name1 =
established_title =
established_date =

unit_pref = Imperial
area_footnotes =

area_magnitude =
area_total_km2 = 6.4
area_land_km2 = 4.5
area_water_km2 = 1.9
area_total_sq_mi = 2.5
area_land_sq_mi = 1.7
area_water_sq_mi = 0.7

population_as_of = 2000
population_footnotes =
population_total = 2313
population_density_km2 = 519.4
population_density_sq_mi = 1345.1

timezone = Eastern (EST)
utc_offset = -5
timezone_DST = EDT
utc_offset_DST = -4
elevation_footnotes =
elevation_m = 8
elevation_ft = 26
latd = 40 |latm = 59 |lats = 48 |latNS = N
longd = 72 |longm = 17 |longs = 32 |longEW = W

postal_code_type = ZIP code
postal_code = 11963
area_code = 631
blank_name = FIPS code
blank_info = 36-64485
blank1_name = GNIS feature ID
blank1_info = 0963216
website =
footnotes =

Sag Harbor is a village in Suffolk County, New York, United States, shared by the towns of East Hampton and Southampton. The population was 2,313 at the 2000 census.

The entire business district of the whaling port and writer's colony is listed as Sag Harbor Village District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sag Harbor is about three fifths in Southampton and two fifths in East Hampton. The dividing line is Division Street which becomes Town Line Road just north of the village. Most of the defining landmarks of the village -- including its Main Street, the Whalers Church, Jermain Library, Whaling Museum, the Old Burying Ground, Oakland Cemetery, Mashashimuet Park, and Otter Pond are all in Southampton. However, almost all the Bay Street marina complex at the foot of Main Street is in East Hampton as are the village's high school, the Sag Harbor State Golf Course, and the freed slave community of Eastville.

History

Sag Harbor was settled sometime between 1707 and 1730 (the first Bill of lading using the name Sag Harbor was recorded in 1730). [cite web
url=http://www.cornerbarsagharbor.com/History.htm
title=History of Sag Harbor
accessdate=2008-07-04
last=Keene
first=Robert
date=2008-02-07
year= |month= |format= |work=
publisher=Corner Bar 1 Main Street Sag Harbor New York 11963
pages= |language= |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ] Most accounts say it was named for neighboring Sagaponack, New York which at the time was called "Sagg." Sag Harbor's first spellings used the double "G." [cite web
url=http://sagharbor.suffolk.lib.ny.us/localhistoryroom.htm
title=Long Island History Room
accessdate=2008-07-04
date=2007-03-27
year= |month= |format= |work=
publisher=John Jermain Memorial Library, Sag Harbor, NY
pages= |language= |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate=
quote=Please see image labeled Sagg Harbor 1840.]

The port supplanted the East Hampton community of Northwest which is about five miles east of Sag Harbor. International ships and the whaling industry had started in Northwest but its port was too shallow. The most valuable whale product was whale oil which was used in lamps; thus it could be said that Sag Harbor was a major oil port.

By 1789 Sag Harbor had "had more tons of square-rigged vessels engaged in commerce than even New York City." [cite news
first=Steve
last=Wick
title=Sag Harbor's Heyday -- Newsday.com
url=http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-hs502a,0,6172143.story?coll=ny-lihistory-navigation
work=Newsday
date=2008-02-23
accessdate=2008-07-04] It had become an international port.

During the American Revolutionary War, American raiders under Return Jonathan Meigs attacked a British garrison on May 23, 1777, on a hill at what today is the Old Burying Ground next to the Whaler's Church, killing six and capturing 90 British soldiers in what was called Meigs Raid.

During the War of 1812, the British attacked the town on July 11, 1813 but were driven back.

The whaling industry in Sag Harbor peaked in the 1840s. Sag Harbor is mentioned in Chapters 12, 13, 57 and 83 of
Moby-Dick [cite web
url=http://etcweb.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/aglimpse.batke/14?query=Harbor&errors=0&maxfiles=100&maxlines=30
title=Result for query "Harbor"
accessdate=2008-07-04
work=The Princeton Text Archive
publisher=The Educational Technologies Center, Princeton University] including this passage:

:::Arrived at last in old Sag Harbor; and seeing what the sailors did there; and then going on to Nantucket, and seeing how they spent their wages in that place also, poor Queequeg gave it up for lost. Thought he, it's a wicked world in all meridians; I'll die a pagan. [cite book
last=Melville
first=Herman
authorlink=Herman Melville
coauthors= |editor= |others=
title=Moby Dick
origdate=
origyear=1851
origmonth= |url= |format=
accessdate=2008-07-04
chapter=Chapter xii - BIOGRAPHICAL
chapterurl=http://etcweb.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/mfs.batke/14/moby_012.html?64#mfs
quote= ]

Among the sea captains who died whaling from Sag Harbor was Charles Watson Payne, the great-great-great grandfather of Howard Dean [cite web
url=http://www.wargs.com/political/dean.html
title=Ancestry of Howard Dean
accessdate=2008-07-04
last=Reitwiesner
first=William Addams
date=2007-07-01
quote=born 6 Oct. 1808, killed 4 Jan. 1838 by a whale and buried at sea, m. Sag Harbor, Long Island, N. Y., 12 May 1833]

Relics of this period include the Old Whaler's Church which is a Presbyterian Church that sported a 168-foot high steeple which was claimed to be the tallest structure on Long Island when it opened in 1843. [Push is on to rebuild church steeple - East Hampton Press by Oliver Peterson - June 13, 2007] The steeple collapsed during the Great Hurricane of 1938 The Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum now shares the handsome, 1840 Greek Revival building designed by Minard Lafever for Wamponamon Lodge #437 Free & Accepted Masons. The Masonic Lodge is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2008. The Architecture of both the Whaler's Church & the Masonic Temple are attributed to prominent 19th century American architect Minard LaFever. The broken mast monument in Oakland Cemetery is the most visible of several memorials to those who died at sea.

The whaling business collapsed after 1847 initially with the discovery of other methods to create kerosene with the first being coal oil. The discovery of petroleum in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859 sealed the end. Many of the ships based in Sag Harbor were sailed to San Francisco, California where they were simply abandoned during the California Gold Rush. The last whaler -- the Myra -- sailed from Sag Harbor in 1871. [ [cite news
first=Bill
last=Bleyer
authorlink= |author= |coauthors=
title=Sag Harbor - A Port Bigger Than New York
url=http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-historytown-hist006c,0,6589760.story
format= |work= |publisher= |location= |id= |pages= |page=
date=2008-02-23
accessdate=22008-07-04
language=
quote=The business then declined rapidly as ships and crews were lured by the 1849 California gold rush and oil was discovered in Pennsylvania. The last Sag Harbor whaler was the Myra, which sailed in 1871 and wrecked three years later.] ]

One sailor who continued on other endeavors was Mercator Cooper who sailed out of Sag Harbor on November 9, 1843 on the Manhattan (1843) on a voyage that would make him the first American to visit Tokyo Bay. Aboard the ship was Pyrrhus Concer a former slave who was the first black man the Japanese had seen.

Cooper's adventures were to continue on another voyage out of Sag Harbor when on January 26, 1853, sailing the Levant became the first person to set foot on East Antarctica.

During World War I the E.W. Bliss Company tested torpedoes in the harbor a half mile north of Sag Harbor. As part of the process, Long Wharf in Sag Harbor was reinforced with concrete and rail spurs built along the wharf as the torpedoes were loaded onto ships for testing. The torpedoes were shipped via the Long Island Rail Road along the Sag Harbor to the wharf which was owned by the railroad at the time. Among those observing the tests was Thomas Alva Edison. Most of the today's buildings on the wharf including the Bay Street Theatre were built during this time. The torpedoes which did not have live warheads are occasionally found by divers on the bay floor.

Various industries have operated in town, the last of which was the Bulova Watchcase Factory, which closed in 1981.

Sag Harbor was also author John Steinbeck's residence from 1955 until his death in 1968.

The Sag Harbor-North Haven Bridge is notable as the site of Pop artist Ray Johnson's presumed suicide in 1995 as well as two abortive suicide attempts by monologist Spalding Gray, in September 2002 and October 2003.

Sag Harbor is also the birthplace of the noted American poet George Sterling.

Former New York Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez as well as current New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady own estates here. Christie Brinkley resides in Sag Harbor.

World-renound rock star, Billy Joel is a constant figure in Sag Harbor. He owns a boathouse in the harbor area and is there daily, often seen on one of his three boats, or numerous motercycles.

Geography

Sag Harbor is located at coor dms|40|59|48|N|72|17|32|W|city (40.996603, -72.292190)GR|1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 2.5 square miles (6.4 km²), of which, 1.7 square miles (4.5 km²) of it is land and 0.8 square miles (1.9 km²) of it (30.36%) is water.

Demographics

As of the censusGR|2 of 2000, there were 2,313 people, 1,120 households, and 583 families residing in the village. The population density was 1,345.1 people per square mile (519.2/km²). There were 1,942 housing units at an average density of 1,129.4/sq mi (435.9/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 85.78% White, 7.44% African American, 0.52% Native American, 0.95% Asian, 2.72% from other races, and 2.59% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.31% of the population.

There were 1,120 households out of which 18.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.6% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 47.9% were non-families. 40.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.06 and the average family size was 2.81.

In the village the population was spread out with 16.5% under the age of 18, 5.4% from 18 to 24, 25.4% from 25 to 44, 28.6% from 45 to 64, and 24.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46 years. For every 100 females there were 91.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.8 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $52,275, and the median income for a family was $70,536. Males had a median income of $41,181 versus $34,750 for females. The per capita income for the village was $40,566. About 1.8% of families and 4.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.9% of those under age 18 and 3.8% of those age 65 or over.

References

External links

*Dorothy Zaykowski, ``Sag Harbor -- The Story of an American Beauty"
* [http://www.sagharborny.gov Official village Web site]
* [http://www.sagharborschools.org Sag Harbor Union Free School District]
* [http://www.piersoncentennial.com Pierson Centennial 1907-2007 / Sag Harbor Schools Alumni]
* [http://www.stellamarisschool.org Stella Maris Regional School]