Wainscott is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the count ...

(CDP) that roughly corresponds to the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

with the same name in the

Town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servi ...

, the CDP population was 650. The CDP was created for the 2000 census.

Background and history

The hamlet was named after Wainscott, Kent, a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

north of

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it wi ...

, England, an area immortalized in

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

' '' Great Expectations'' and from which most of the early settlers of East Hampton came. The Wainscott School, founded in 1730, was the last public

one-room school One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...

house operating in New York until an annex was built in 2008. Wainscott faces the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

to the south. On its west is the

of Sagaponack, and on the east is the village of East Hampton. Other communities that border Wainscott are the CDPs of East Hampton North and Northwest Harbor to the northeast, the village of

Sag Harbor Sag Harbor is an incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York, United States, in the towns of Southampton and East Hampton on eastern Long Island. The village developed as a working port on Gardiner's Bay. The population was 2,772 at the 2 ...

to the north, and the CDPs of Noyack and Bridgehampton to the west (north of Sagaponack). The eastern side of Wainscott faces

Georgica Pond Georgica Pond is a coastal lagoon on the west border of East Hampton Village and Wainscott, New York, and was the site of a Summer White House of Bill Clinton in 1998 and 1999. The lagoon is separated by a sandbar and is managed by the East ...

. The exclusive Georgica Association has a subdivision on the west side of the pond. The Association's most famous house, Kilkare, was built in 1880. It was owned by attorney Michael J. Kennedy, who hosted

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

and

Ivana Trump Ivana Marie Trump (, ; February 20, 1949 – July 14, 2022) was a Czech-American businesswoman, media personality, socialite, fashion designer, author, and model. Ivana lived in Canada in the 1970s before relocating to the United States and m ...

visits for seven years, until representing Ivana in her divorce from Trump. It was the beach house featured in the 2004 film '' Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind''. The PBS children's show ''

It's a Big Big World ''It's a Big Big World'' is an American children's television series that aired on PBS Kids from January 2, 2006, to January 8, 2010. The series was created by Mitchell Kriegman, the creator of the Muppet television series, ''Bear in the Big ...

'' is taped in the industrial park at the East Hampton Airport, which is in Wainscott. The Wainscott railroad station on the

Montauk Branch The Montauk Branch is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch runs the length of Long Island, 115 miles (185 km) from Long Island City on the west to Montauk on the east. Howe ...

closed in the 1930s. In 2020, Citizens For The Preservation of Wainscott, a non profit organization, started a petition to incorporate the community. A driving force of the petition was to fight a proposal for the preferred location for the 138-kilovolt electricity transmission line from the

South Fork Wind Farm South Fork Wind Farm is a utility-scale offshore wind farm currently being constructed on the Outer Continental Shelf Offshore Rhode Island (RI) which will provide energy to New York state. South Fork is a major (130 MW, 12-turbine) commercial ...

to come ashore in the community at Beach Lane en route to an electrical substation in East Hampton. The petition was denied in 2021 by the East Hampton Town Supervisor, in part for only receiving 19 valid signatures. The organization was represented by

Greenberg Traurig Greenberg Traurig is a multinational law firm founded in Miami in 1967. As of 2022, the Greenberg Traurig is the 9th largest law firm in the United States. The firm has 43 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and ...

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...

, the CDP has a total area of , of which is land and , or 6.87%, is water. Wainscott has a different landscape than East Hampton or Amagansett. The town is flat: houses border on potato or corn fields that then border on the dune and the ocean. Main Street used to have a general store and a post office. The post office eventually moved to a new building on

Montauk Highway Montauk Highway is an east–west road extending for across the southern shore of Long Island in Suffolk County, New York, in the United States. It extends from the Nassau County line in Amityville, where it connects to Merrick Road, to Montauk ...

and the old post office became a private residence. Before 1935, Main Street was lined with sycamores, but the hurricane took them all down.

Demographics

Demographics of the CDP

All demographic figures refer to permanent inhabitants of the CDP, not second-home owners or other visitors. As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2010, there were 650 people, 264 households, and 148 families residing in the CDP. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

was 97.0 per square mile (37.4/km²). There were 876 housing units at an average density of 130.7/sq mi (50.3/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 93.1%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, 2.3%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 1.7% American Indian, 0.5% Asian, 0.9% some other race, and 1.5% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

or Latino of any race were 14.3% of the population. There were 264 households, out of which 24.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.2% were headed by married couples living together, 8.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.9% were non-families. 33.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.3% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30, and the average family size was 2.91. In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 21.7% under the age of 18, 9.4% from 18 to 24, 20.0% from 25 to 44, 28.6% from 45 to 64, and 20.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 115.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 108.6 males. For the period 2007–2011, the estimated median annual income for a household in the CDP was $82,083, and the median income for a family was $79,375. Males had a median income of $64,688 versus $79,167 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the CDP was $51,876. About 2.0% of families and 10.3% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 4.7% of those under age 18 and 2.3% of those age 65 or over. Due to the small sample size of the community, all of the economic figures have large margins of error.

References

{{authority control East Hampton (town), New York Census-designated places in New York (state) Hamlets in New York (state) Census-designated places in Suffolk County, New York Hamlets in Suffolk County, New York Populated coastal places in New York (state)