Foster/D.A.R. House

One of the oldest houses in Southampton, the Foster/D.A.R. House, dates back to 1695. Descendants of Christopher Foster, who came to Southampton sometime between 1649 and 1653, began accumulating land in the early days of the settlement and by 1862, Fosters held some 1,500 acres in Southampton. Edward H. Foster (1844-1931), an eighth-generation descendant, grew up here on the family’s South Main Street farm and became an influential player in local affairs, serving as Town Clerk from 1870 to 1886. He lived in this house and built rental cottages on the large Foster home lot. In the early 20s, Prohibition repeal leader Pauline Sabin purchased it. She later donated it to the Southampton Colony Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR.) The organization sold it in 1996 to Dr. Farhad Hakimi, a New York dentist. One architectural oddity, added to the house around 1890 when Edward still owned it, is that the second-story porch, an enclosed projection over the front door, with windows on all three sides giving an unobstructed view of whatever was happening on Main Street. Dr. Hakimi’s work with contractors lasted three years and amounted to a virtual rebuilding, but the porch, Dr. Hakimi’s, favorite feature, stayed, and the street-facing facade looks much as it did before he bought it, ready for another century or two.