The houses on the eastern tip of Long Island read larger than they are. Many belong to America’s wealthiest families, which gives them oomph. But mostly it’s because of the landscape. The ground is flat, the lawns dissolve into marshes, and beyond the tidal inlets the Atlantic stretches uninterrupted to the horizon. Against so much empty space, even a modest house looks magisterial.
That openness has done more than flatter architecture—it has shaped it. For more than a century, the East End has served as a laboratory for American domestic design, beginning with its beach houses.
