75 Gansett Lane

The Indian Wells enter the East Hampton town records in 1652, written down as a marker in a land allotment. They were freshwater springs a short way in from the ocean, one of three sets of wells the town noted in the post-contact period, and the Montaukett had drawn from them long enough that the hamlet took its name from the water: Amagansett, place of good water. A 1948 memorial still marks the spot, beside the beach that carries the name.

The lanes running south off Main Street were laid inside that geography and still keep it. Indian Wells Highway forms the western edge, dropping to the beach; Atlantic Avenue forms the eastern one. The East Hampton Trails Preservation Society describes the grid as straddling two historic districts and sitting equidistant between the ocean and the village, which is the plainest account of the Lanes anyone has written down. Gansett Lane runs between those two boundaries, south of Montauk Highway. Number 75 holds four tenths of an acre, level and fenced on both flanks, with a cedar shingled house of 1965 standing on it: four bedrooms, two baths, one fireplace, town water, a crawl space and no cellar. The two maples on the back lawn were here first.