Bowden Square & The Coal Bin

Bowden Square is one of Southampton Village’s most storied social corners, where glamour, nightlife, music and local history all intersected for generations. For decades, this site was home to the legendary Herb McCarthy’s Bowden Square, one of the most famous gathering places in the Hamptons from 1936 to 1986. A restaurant and nightclub, Bowden Square became known as the place to see and be seen. On summer nights, crowds packed around its iconic horseshoe bar, among them the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Ginger Rogers, Gary Cooper, Henry Ford II, and novelist Irwin Shaw. Herb McCarthy himself — known around town as “The Man in the White Coat” — became a Southampton character in his own right, running the establishment with old-school charm and personality. Beneath Bowden Square’s glamorous reputation lies another important chapter of Southampton history. Before and alongside its later fame, this area was also associated with a segregated juke joint known as “The Coal Bin,” an important but long-overlooked gathering place for Southampton’s African American community during an era when many establishments remained segregated. Though little documentation survives, oral histories and recently rediscovered artwork help preserve its memory. According to local historians and the Southampton African American Museum, The Coal Bin operated quietly without even needing a sign out front — everyone in the community knew where it was. It served as a place of music, dancing, celebration, and connection at a time when opportunities for Black residents to gather socially were limited elsewhere on the East End.