Steve,
The purchase I'm most curious about is the one Sabin made in 1917 or 1918 of over 300 acres next to NGLA. It would be interesting to see what he paid per acre. He also bought 20 acres from CBM IN 1920 on land that I believe was west of today's 8th and 9th holes as per an article I posted many pages back.
Also, i know you disagree but why do you think MacDonald wrote that everyone thought the land of Sebonac Neck was more or less worthless?
Mike,
I don't believe Bayberry Land was purchased in "one" deal from SH&PB Realty Co, there were many land transfers related to the property reported in the HABS document.
My inclination is to believe that Sabin and Macdonald both saw opportunity in them thar hills... and early in the overall timeline of things you've been trying to reconcile. If I had my sights on such land, I wouldn't give it much "public value" for discussion or reference!
- Certainly they both travelled to Shinnecock Hills by train to play and stay, perhaps also an adventure by car, who knows? Its not as though they kept handwritten journals of everything they did, maybe their secretaries kept a datebook or schedule that's discoverable, who knows?. I simply imagine they must have done more than play and leave the area, they were too well connected.
- I imagine seeing some of the estates etc. already there or in development gave them some ideas, it was a very nice place compared to Wall Street & Broadway offices, and city living, a place to play golf, relax, recharge, and breath the fresh air. With the new bridges, tunnels and transportation options leading out to Long Island, it was an easy to recognize opportunity to get in early. Perhaps if that competing rail line built directly along the Connecticut shore up to Boston hadn't been built, the LIRR might had been able to earlier commercialize their rail-ferry-rail route to Boston, things would have been bit different.
- I imagine they must have discussed their interests or dreams at some time, how to best secure some future land holdings, non-competively or with a win-win team approach of course, just like on Wall Street!
- CBM ended up with 200 acres for himself, Ballyshear Estate, CHS ended up with his 314 acre Bayberry Land estate. These were not men thinking cabanas or bungalows for their situations in life.
- I read where bicycling was a grand adventure and was a well promoted recreational activity out on the Long island shoreline, but I don't see CBM & CHS on bikes.. Given their ages and upbringings, I see CBM taking some horse rides for fun or adventure up to Sag Harbor or Sebonac Creek or to Sebanac Neck, off to the hills along the rail line, around Cold Spring Pond and checking out Bull Head Bay waters edge and the view from the bluffs over Peconic Bay. CBM later had his own stables at Ballyshear, and if you like to ride or grew up on a horse, that must have been a tremendously fun area to explore. I've ridden in the sandy hills of northern Michigan, a horse is a great way to traverse some major mileage on small paths or to make your own.. ((My wife, Ms.Sheila, had a pony and I've heard tales of her riding all day with her friends, 10's of miles, a free range kid so to speak)) CBM surely was adventurous and could have checked things out on his own, or quietly with others, even camped out on the beach, who knows? You know, if you make a trail in spring, and keep traveling it, it stays most of the summer with little upkeep, like deer trails..
- Given how real estate sales by Parrish's passive Shinnecock Hills Land Co. were superceded by Redfield's aggressive SH&PB Realty Co. who had Olmsted and Vaux plat things extensively from the Canal Place to Southampton , and the ensuing lack of sales were keenly watched and reported in newspapers like the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, it was probably a gambit of "right of first refusal" or land option plays that enabled Sabin to have his Sebonac Neck Land Co quietly acquire the properties over time that became Bayberry Land, while CBM didn't have to deal with Redfield for his Ballyshear property.
That's what I think and imagine. for now...