Antler Hall was spared from the fire. So where did it go?

I came across this story in the East Hampton Star while doing research on the last years of the camp.  Shortly afterwards, I wrote a letter to Ms Lowe, the final owner of Antler Hall, who called me and told me the story of what became of it.

Not long before the sale of Fire Place Lodge, Marion Lowe purchased Antler Hall from Chief’s son-in-law.  Ms Lowe’s plan was to live in the barn and build around it, if necessary.  Her contractors, unable or unwilling to do this, dismantled the barn.  According to Ms Lowe, they built her a conventional house instead.  The house is somewhat larger than the barn was, but similar in shape.  She wasn’t happy about this, but she accepted the builder’s opinion that it wasn’t possible to give her what she wanted.

What follows is the story of the relocation of Antler Hall, as reported in the East Hampton Star on January 31, 1980.

From House to Lowe, by Phyllis Reed

(from the East Hampton Star, January 31, 1980)

Robert Kennelly’s house-moving trailer truck moved slowly southward on Springs-Fireplace Road on Monday carrying a 20 by 40 foot building bearing a sign, “Antler Hall”.  The “barn” was reported to have been the last salvageable out-building to be moved from Fireplace Lodge, a girls’ camp on the water at Fireplace, now going into development.

Marion Lowe of New York said she read of the building’s availability during a “weekend of rest” here some months ago.  Her curiosity led to an inquiry, and the inquiry led to the purchase of the building from Robert See, the former camp’s owner.

By noon Monday, Mr. Kennelly had positioned the building alongside its foundation on Miss Lowe’s three-acre parcel, ready to be eased into position.  The parcel fronts on Fireplace Road, just north of Copeces Lane, and abuts property owned by Helen Gee, which contains a residence, and an undeveloped parcel owned by Dr. Eugene Brady of Mount Vernon, N.Y.

The house will be set far into the woods, high on a clearing near a stand of birch trees, “17 degrees east to south to get maximum heat from the sun in passive solar fashion,” Miss Lowe said.  Walter Wirth, who owns a floor sanding business in Sag Harbor, is the builder, and Peter Barnes of East Hampton, the mason.  Miss Lowe is her own contractor.

“A quiet weekend rest led to all this!” Miss Lowe beamed; it was as though she had not quite realized what she had done.

–Phyllis Reed