Our Story
‘It was home. . . he became enamored of what it was to him and would be for the rest of us who were close to him’
- John Steinbeck - The Winter of our Discontent
John Steinbeck Waterfront Park is a dream many years in the making for residents and visitors to the Village of Sag Harbor. The land which was once a small marine gas station and motel, then home to office and professional services buildings and was about to become luxury condominiums, was saved through the hard work of village officials, Southampton Town board members and the generosity of private developers.
On August 16th, 2019, the final paperwork was signed and the 1.25 acre park was officially given to the Village for operation and management after being purchased by the Southampton Community Preservation Fund.
The park will become the gateway to the Village’s Main street when arriving from the North and West. Plans call for the Park to be connected to the newly renovated Long Wharf with an ecology sustainable boardwalk that will allow full ADA access from The Wharf, under the Lance Corporal Jordan C. Haerter Veterans Memorial Bridge, forming an interconnected feature at the center of downtown. Multiple access and egress points to the Park will encourage a wide range of uses and visitors, from those having a quick lunch at a café table, or enjoying the sunset from the west facing beach or fishing under the bridge.
The Park is named after the Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck. The writer of “the “Grapes of Wrath”, “Of Mice & Men”, “East of Eden”, and other notable titles, John Steinbeck and his wife Elaine lived in Sag Harbor for the last 16 years of the author’s life. “Travels with Charley”, one of Steinbeck’s last books starts in Sag Harbor during a hurricane as the author looks out into Upper Sag Harbor Cove. Steinbeck was enamored of Sag Harbor, it is said it was the model for Old Baytown the fictional center of “Winter of our Discontent” which Steinbeck described as “a handsome town, an old town, one of first clear and defined whole towns in America”. John Steinbeck is also credited with starting HarborFest and proposing the Windmill at the end of Long Wharf.
The park will be fully funded through private fundraising and donations. The design of the park has been generously donated by Edmund Hollander & Associates. Other commercial contributors include xxx and yyy. Private funding events have taken place and now the next chapter will open with the opportunity to buy benches, plants, trees and more with this web site.
