sketches of local history: Shinnecock Canal Canoe Place 40°53′15″N 72°30′5″Whome_index.html

William Merritt Chase

Idle Hours  Shinnecock Hills c.1894

Oil on canvas, 25 x 35 inches.

“Chase's arrival at Shinnecock coincided closely with the commercial development of the region. If the area was of little practical agricultural use, by about 1890 it began to be settled by those who perceived very different value in it. A booklet published by the Long Island Railroad described the place and the state of its development in 1890, the year before Chase's arrival: 'it is hardly possible to imagine a more desirable location for a summer residence. The land is high, and from this rounded plateau one looks down upon one of the finest marine views on the Atlantic coast. The ocean, flecked with sails, is before, while behind, the winding waters of Peconic Bay, with the intermingling shores, give infinite variety of scene.'" .... During the 1890s, the area would swiftly become a resort for prominent New Yorkers, and the area began to rival Newport as a vacation retreat.” Read more.....railroads_semi-centennial.htmlshinnecock_landscape_notes_christies.htmlshinnecock_landscape_notes_christies.htmlshapeimage_3_link_0shapeimage_3_link_1
The importance of preserving Coastal bluffs on which Chase’s family is poised along the Peconic Bay, is explained in a Town document citing the Bluff seen along the horizon in this painting: “along the shore of the Great Peconic Bay, contains a coastal bluff approximately 50 to 70 feet above mean sea level (as defined in the National Geodetic Vertical Datum (?NGVD?) 1929). (S125, at 9; Stipulation dated January 16, 2007, Stip. No. 6.) Read more...(S125, at 27-31.)”copied_re_biological_resources.html

copyright2015 Hope Sandrow

Plein air painter William Merritt Chase was invited as founding director of the Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art (1891-1902), a part of the plan to gentrify the Hills. He was given a home with a studio, on two acres west of the school, designed and built by esteemed architect Stanford White. Janet Chase Hoyt (Mrs. William) an amateur painter, Annie Porter (Mrs. Henry Kirke} and Samuel Parrish, Land Developer and Arts Patron/founder of Parrish Art Museum, who along with other landowner/investors with ties to the LI Railroad, believed the renowned artist would attract investors, wealthy tourists to purchase land; and students from NYC to frequent the train.