Wainscott is a

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

in the

Town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

of East Hampton in Suffolk County,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, United States, on the South Fork of

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. As of the 2010 United States Census, the CDP population was 650. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau defined 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 counte ...

(CDP) for the 2000 census that roughly corresponds to the same area.

Background and history

The hamlet was named after Wainscott, Kent, a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

north of

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...

, England, an area immortalized in

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

' ''

Great Expectations ''Great Expectations'' is the thirteenth novel by English author Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. The novel is a bildungsroman and depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip. It is Dickens' second novel, after ''Dav ...

'' 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 schoolhouses, or One-room schools, have been commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, and Spa ...

house operating in

until an annex was built in 2008. Wainscott-school

Wainscott faces the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

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 Gardiners Bay. The population was 2,772 at the 2 ...

to the north, and the CDPs of

Noyack Noyack (also Noyac) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The CDP population was 4,325 at the 2020 census. ''Noyac'' is an Algonquin word meaning "a corner or point of land". It is believed tha ...

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 is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

and

Ivana Trump Ivana Marie Trump (; February 20, 1949 – July 14, 2022) was a businesswoman, socialite, and model. She lived in Canada in the 1970s, before relocating to the United States and marrying Donald Trump in 1977. She held key managerial positions ...

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 ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' is a 2004 American surrealist science fiction romantic drama film directed by Michel Gondry and written by Charlie Kaufman from a story by Gondry, Kaufman, and Pierre Bismuth. Starring Jim Carrey a ...

''. 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 Bl ...

'' 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 line runs the length of Long Island, 115 miles (185 km) from Long Island City to Montauk. However, in LIRR maps and sche ...

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 the United States' first utility-scale Offshore wind power, offshore wind farm. It is located on the Outer Continental Shelf Offshore Rhode Island and providing power to New York (state), New York state. The 132 Megawat ...

to come ashore in the community at Beach Lane en route to an

electrical substation A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions. Between the generating station an ...

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, law and lobbying firm founded in Miami in 1967 by Mel Greenberg, Larry J. Hoffman, and Robert H. Traurig. As of 2025, it is the eighth-largest law firm in the United States. The firm has 49 locati ...

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, 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 Amityville, New York, Amityville–Copiague, New York, Copiague line, where ...

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

For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau defined a

(CDP) for the 2000 census that roughly corresponds to the same area as the hamlet. As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2010, there were 650 people, 264 households, and 148 families residing in the CDP. The population density was . There were 876 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the CDP was 93.1%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 2.3%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

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

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

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 Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

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 average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

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 ...

, 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)