This photograph shows construction for a housing development on Shepherd’s Neck in Montauk that Carl Fisher built. Fisher envisioned the “cottages” as housing for the employees needed to develop Montauk into “the Miami Beach of the North.”
While the photo is undated, the house would have been built between April 1926 and June 1927. It was likely one of the earlier ones built, since no others are visible nearby.
Shepherd’s Neck Village began with a single house built in a day in April 1926. Early homes were filled by construction workers and their families as they continued to build the neighborhood. Some estimates indicate that Fisher brought between 700 and 2,000 people to work in Montauk for his businesses.
According to The East Hampton Star, construction of the “over 50 houses” finished by June 10, 1927. The new “colony” for Fisher’s employees included electricity, phone service, and sewer connections, with plans to add a school. The residences were primarily intended for the staff of the Montauk Manor, which also opened in June 1927.
Robert Tappan, the project’s architect, made plans for Tudor Revival-style housing. Originally, 100 houses were planned, with bachelor housing and stores, along with a variety of community spaces. Fisher’s development company also built the Montauk Community Church, the Montauk Yacht Club, the Montauk Playhouse, and the Surf Club.
The construction of Shepherd’s Neck Village coincided with a downturn in Carl Fisher’s fortunes, followed by the October 1929 stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression. Fisher’s employees were being laid off, and the Manor was closed for the winter. By the mid-1930s, many of the houses in Shepherds Neck were being purchased or rented as summer residences. Fisher’s financial ruin was further exacerbated by his growing alcoholism, which led to his death in 1939 at age 65.
While Fisher’s plans for Montauk were never finished, his ideas about community planning and employee housing have grown in popularity over the last century.
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Andrea Meyer, a librarian and archivist, is head of collection for the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection.
