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A Big-House Fight on Film

Thu, 10/06/2022 - 09:53

Build.In.Kind/East Hampton and the Wainscott Heritage Project will host a screening of “One Big Home,” a 2016 documentary by Thomas Bena, at LTV Studios in Wainscott on Saturday at 4 p.m.

Mr. Bena was a carpenter on Martha’s Vineyard who became alarmed by the impact of ever-larger houses being built there. Over a period of 12 years, he traded his toolbelt for a camera, took aim at the trend toward trophy houses, and worked with his community to pass a law to limit house size.

“The film is a testament to how the active engagement of citizens can achieve constructive change,” Jaine Mehring, who founded Build.In.Kind/East Hampton to slow development activity in the town, said.

The Wainscott Heritage Project was formed in 2021 by citizens resolved to preserve the history and cultural character of the hamlet. Esperanza Leon, a co-founder of the project, said “One Big Home” can “reassure any community threatened by a loss of character and sense of place that it is possible to slow or even halt that process and restore some balance.”

Mr. Bena will be on hand for a discussion after the screening.

Villages

Buddhist Monks on the Path to World Peace

Twenty or so monks from a monastery in Texas are making their way to Washington, D.C., on a mission of compassion, while locally a class on the Buddhist path to world peace will be held in Water Mill.

Jan 29, 2026

‘ICE Out’ Vigils on Friday

Coordinated vigils for what organizers call victims of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement will happen across the East End on Friday at 6 p.m. and in Riverhead on Saturday at 10 a.m., with local events scheduled in East Hampton Village and Sag Harbor.

Jan 29, 2026

Item of the Week: The Reverend and the Accabonac Tribe

This photostat of a deposition taken on Oct. 18, 1667, from East Hampton’s first minister, Thomas James, is one of the earliest records we have of “Ackobuak,” or “Accabonac,” as a place name.

Jan 29, 2026

 

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