| Issue #33, November 10, 2006 |
WILL ZONING BOARDS BOARD UP THE BOARDY BARN?
By T.J. Clemente
Although the reported sale for the legendary bar-hangout “Boardy Barn” in Hampton Bays is dead, there comes the realization that the Sunday hangout for so many different generations over the past 40 years may actually close soon if another buyer is not located. It is just another Hampton’s icon shopped because the land it occupies is worth more than the present business on it can earn. It is just another nail in the coffin of what was once small town America.
In Boardy Barn’s case, a strip mall was proposed to the planning board, whose members saw more tax revenue and an end to the partying on the site that goes on all summer “like a college homecoming every weekend.” The investors withdrew from the purchase when it became obvious that due to the zoning of the property as a “highway business” more parking spaces had to be included in the plan then the investors could put in and justify the cost.
A representative of Anthony Galgano, the owner of Boardy Barn, declared the proposed deal “dead” but said Mr. Galgano is ready to sell should the right offer again come his way.
So that could mean the end of the 40-year summer party on the corner of Old Montauk Highway across from the Hess Station. For years, the tradition was that first time visitors got a mug of beer bath. The bartender at Shagwong in Montauk tells stories of years past when she would go there and walk around in mud made by beer and dirt. She met her first serious boyfriend there, though “he wasn’t that serious.” Lee Bieler, former owner of the now very dead Blue Parrot, called Boardy Barn, “A wild place, very wild, so many people met so many people there in that lot. It’s sad to see it go. God, it’s been there forever.” The last event held at The Boardy Barn this season was the All Hampton Bays All Class reunion held October 14th. It started at 7 p.m. and officially closed at 11 p.m. However, rumor has it there are still six cars abandoned on the site because the owners still are not sure where they parked. The big tent with the teal stripes always let one know that a party was going to happen on the grounds.
However, all this may come to a close if the right price is met. Jeff V. Murphee, the planning and developing administrator for Southampton Town, reportedly claims that surveys done recently have the local residents saying the Boardy Barn property should be redeveloped and linked to the neighboring Wild by Nature shopping complex. Perhaps this group was not the most sentimental to the parties held at the Boardy Barn. One former patron said it best. “I met my wife there except at the time she was someone else’s wife.”
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