Historic whaling town is now a sailor's paradise

When Bob Tortora first came to Sag Harbor in the 1990s, he was living there on weekends and working in the city. But after a short while, he managed to extend his stay to full-time.

It's beautiful, he said. I like the small-town feeling. I buy everything I can at the local hardware store and I get two or three meals a day from the Harbor Deli.

Tortora lives in Sag Harbor's historic district, where he restores historic homes, something for which Sag Harbor is known. Most of the houses were built in the 1800s, he said. There are some Greek revivals, Victorians, cottages, and what we call half-houses, which look like center-hall colonials cut in half. There's no one prevailing style.

Formerly a whaling town, Sag Harbor is a now sailor's paradise. At the foot of Main Street, masts rise from the harbor, from which boats can journey out to Gardiner's Bay and the ocean beyond. Visiting yachtsmen are welcome at the upscale Sag Harbor Yacht Club, established in 1899. The community Breakwater Yacht Club, with annual family membership fees of just $225, has a well-regarded youth sailing program. Sag Harbor has many boating-related events, said Priscilla Garston, a licensed sales associate in the Sag Harbor office of Prudential Douglas Elliman. Notably, she said, six America's Cup sailboats will race in the Sag Harbor Charity Challenge in September.

Minutes from the ocean beaches of East Hampton and Southampton, Sag Harbor also has its own beautiful and idyllic bay beaches, including Haven's Beach and Long Beach, both of which are town beaches, said Garston.

The stretch of historic houses along Main Street is called Captain's Row. Attractions along the charming street include the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum, housed in a Greek revival mansion built in 1845, and the American Hotel, an 1846 landmark with an American-French restaurant, bar and eight elegantly appointed guest rooms. Strollers can stop at antique shops, cafes, book stores, clothing boutiques, food stores, art galleries and restaurants. Down by the wharf, the Chamber of Commerce is housed in a windmill. Nearby, the Bay Street Theatre offers professional productions of new, classic and modern shows.

There are a lot of people with weekend and summer homes, but there is also a large year-round population of artists and writers, tradespeople and professionals, and new transplants and old families that go way back to the whaling and farming days, said Garston.

Like elsewhere, home prices in Sag Harbor have soared in the past few years. Garston said houses usually start in the $600,000s. Between $600,000 and $700,000, you can get a ranch or another small home with two to three bedrooms and one to two bathrooms about a five-minute drive from the village, she said. At the middle end, for about $1 million, you can get a small home with charm and history in the village, or a larger home outside the village with amenities like beach rights, a pool and a larger property, of about a half- acre to an acre. At the high end, above $2.5 million, you can find a very special historic village home or a waterfront home. With its inlets and harbors, Garston noted that Sag Harbor and surrounding communities have many waterfront properties.

Children from Sag Harbor and some neighboring communities attend the Sag Harbor School District. According to The School Report, last year, the small district, which has less than 1,000 students in grades K-12, sent 93 percent of its high-school graduates to college.

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