Skip to main content

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

Golden Eagle Art Supply Store to Close

The Golden Eagle, an art supply store and East Hampton institution that first opened in 1954, will close next month. It’s a familiar story, as told most recently by Nancy Rowan and Michael Weisman, the Golden Eagle’s owners: The internet has decimated brick-and-mortar retailers across the country.

Dec 18, 2025

Club Swamp Memorial Hailed

The plan for the 1.12-acre Wainscott Green and a park to commemorate the L.G.B.T.Q.+ community that was something of a pioneer on the East End was endorsed by members of the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee on Saturday.

Dec 18, 2025

It’s Like ‘Shark Tank’ for Charities

At Pitch Your Peers the Hamptons, paying members instead pitch local charitable organizations to one another, and everyone votes on where to allot their funds. This year, the group awarded grants to the Retreat and Share the Harvest Farm.

Dec 18, 2025

 

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.