Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Fowler House

The Fowler House in Freetown belonged to Montaukett gardener George Lewis Fowler and Sarah Melissa Horton Fowler. Current architectural research indicates that the house was built in Freetown around 1885, after Montaukett families faced dispossession at Indian Field, rather than moved intact from Montauk. Physically relocated from the ancestral Montauk settlement of Indian Fields to the Freetown neighborhood, the Fowler House stands as a stark architectural record of developer Arthur Benson's campaign to remove the Montaukett people. Preserving this structure transforms an instrument of forced displacement into a powerful, enduring monument to the resilience and ongoing presence of indigenous families. The Fowler House during restoration. George Lewis Fowler, Anthony Beaman, and Eliza Fowler Beaman, around 1910. East Hampton Library, Long Island Collection. George Fowler was a Montaukett...