from the ARCHIVES
Summer in the Hamptons The House That Winnie Built By Anne Romano, archivist emerita
The summer of 1906 was a glorious one for Horace and Winnie Taft. They spent a good part of their summer holidays in their cottage in the little breeze-swept village of Wainscott in East Hampton. Winifred had fallen in love with the area in 1900 when they went to visit the Whitneys, their friends from New Haven. On August 26, 1900, Horace wrote to [his brother] Will from East Hampton: We came here to try something as different as possible from Mt. Desert. It is delightful. Yesterday afternoon we went to a tea that the Whitneys (at Wainscott) gave to Arthur and Mrs. Hadley who are staying with them for a few days. It was a delightful company. H. Newton was there and a number of other bright and well-known people. In 1902, “bowing to Winifred’s wishes,” Horace started building a summer cottage at Wainscott on three and one-half acres of land on the shore of Georgia Pond overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Ted D. Peck, Waterbury architect, was ahead of his time. His innovative design for the Taft cottage resembled that of Frank Lloyd Wright homes on the West Coast.
The house had seven bedrooms and two baths, and the third floor had additional bedrooms reserved for the housekeeping staff. The cottage had large roof overhangs and a very large living-dining room with full picture windows that looked out to the Atlantic. Winnie loved the ocean and the on the white sandy beaches she spent many restful hours reading. She loved Dickens, Trollope, Whitman and Dickinson. Horace enjoyed his game of golf and joined the Maidstone Club. Indeed, one of his purest pleasures was to play golf with his brother Will. As members of Maidstone, the Tafts enjoyed the company of those who were prominent in social, scientific, literary and artistic circles. In some instances, their children attended the Taft School. Horace tried to persuade his brother Will to summer in East Hampton, but the New York Times reported that the “scheme only fell short when no available cottage could be found.” Winnie and Horace would spend only three more summers at their cottage. Winnie died in 1909, and in 1911 Horace sold the cottage to a Mr. George Ingraham of New
York, “who bought the cottage for his daughter who was married to William Willis.” The couple had just had their fifth child, whom they named George Ingraham Willis, after his grandfather. Horace told Mr. Ingraham that “he could not bear to be at the cottage without Winifred.” Subsequently, five generations of Willises would summer there…. In the fall of 1994, upon closing the cottage for the season, Mrs. George Willis removed a set of books and donated them to the Taft School archives. Most of the 16 volumes of British Authors by Anthony Trollope are inscribed with Horace’s signature; a few, in Winnie’s handwriting, simply said “Taft.” The collection remains as a reminder of the couple’s few summer months of happiness and time together at a place so cherished by Winifred Taft. Excerpted from Winnie Taft by Anne Romano, published in 1997. The house has since changed hands. My thanks to Debbie Shepherd, friend of the current owners as well as daughter of Dave Fenton ’48 and mother of Elizabeth Shepherd ’05, for suggesting this story. Taft Bulletin Summer 2011 49