William Merritt Chase Homestead

The William Merritt Chase Homestead, on the north side of Canoe Place Road in Shinnecock Hills, was designed by the well-known New York City architectural firm McKim, Mead & White and built in 1891-1892. The building was the combined summer home and artist's studio for William Merritt Chase, an American artist. A school of art was established in Shinnecock Hills in 1891, inspired by the founder's trips to Europe and seeing the popularity of plein air painting outdoors. Chase was invited to become headmaster of the school. The "Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art" has been credited with being the birthplace of an American expressionist landscape painting. Chase taught at the school in the summers until it closed in 1902; Chase used the house until his death in 1916. The property was listed in the New York and National Registers in 1983. Bathing Beach Road leads northwest from Canoe Place Road through the dense woods to the private property. The house and a garage still stand on the 2.5-acre lot.

The woman who founded the open air art school in Shinnecock Hills was Janet Ralston Chase (Mrs. William) Hoyt of Indiana. Mrs. Hoyt was the daughter of a former Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; her husband was a real estate developer and amateur architect. Her concept was supported financially by Mrs. Samuel Parrish of Shinnecock Hills and Mrs. Henry Kirke Porter of Pittsburgh. Samuel Parrish donated the land where Chase's house/ studio was built; his niece bought the house from the estate of William Merritt Chase after he died in 1916.

William Merritt Chase was born in Indiana in 1849. He studied art in New York at the National Academy of Design and in Europe at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. One of his paintings won a prize at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, starting his career in earnest. Chase rented the main gallery in the Tenth Street Studio Building in Greenwich Village in New York City from 1878 to 1895. Chase was president of the Society of American Artists from 1885 to 1895. He married Alice Bremond Gerson in 1886 and the couple had eleven children, seven of whom survived childhood. Chase moved his wife and children from their home in Greenwich Village to the homestead in Shinnecock Hills for the summers of 1892 to 1902 while he taught at the art school, three miles to the east. In the first summer (1891), Chase stayed at the Shinnecock Inn. Chase painted scenes of his children playing in the art studio at Shinnecock Hills. Chase's painting "The Big Bayberry Bush" is part of the permanent collection of the Parrish Art Museum (also a Clio entry) in Water Mill; it shows his three young daughters playing in the dunes in 1895 with the homestead in the background. Chase continued teaching art both in New York at his Chase School of Art and later at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Among the dozens of artists he taught are Georgia O'Keeffe and Charles Demuth.

The two-and-a-half story wood frame homestead was sheathed in weathered wooden shingles when it was documented for the National Register in 1983. Four gabled dormer windows pierce the south (front) and north sides of the gambrel roof, with three "eyebrow" dormers added onto the front at some point (they are not there in the 1895 photo or architectural sketches (see the images). The wide front porch has fluted columns with rope capitals reflecting the nautical locale. The interior walls and ceilings were covered in unpainted narrow beaded boards. Hardwood floors and a wooden stairway led to a gallery around the edges of a two-story living room. A rear laundry room, bathroom, and porch were added around 1920, after the Chase family sold the property.

Hoakley, Howard. Shinnecock Summer: William Merritt Chase in the country, Eclectic Light Company blog. September 25th 2016. Accessed June 15th 2021. https://eclecticlight.co/2016/09/25/shinnecock-summer-william-merritt-chase-in-the-country/.

Hoakley, Howard. Meet the family: William Merritt Chase at home, Eclectic Light Company blog. September 17th 2016. Accessed June 15th 2021.

https://eclecticlight.co/2016/09/17/meet-the-family-william-merritt-chase-at-home/.

Hoakley, Howard. In William Merritt Chase's studio: insights and informal portraits, Eclectic Light Company blog. September 11th 2016. Accessed June 15th 2021.

https://eclecticlight.co/2016/09/11/in-william-merritt-chases-studio-insights-and-informal-portraits/

O'Brien, Austin. NRHP Nomination of William Merritt Chase Homestead, Southampton, N.Y.. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1983.

Schaffner, Cynthia V. A. Zabar, Lori. The Founding and Design of William Merritt Chase's Shinnecock Summer School of Art and the Art Village. Winterthur Portfolio, vol. 44(4), no. December303 - 350. Published December 1st 2010. JSTOR.