The Carrington House is
located on a tract of land between Fire island Pines and Cherry Grove. It is
one of the earliest homes built on Fire Island, originally constructed in 1912
by Frederick Marquat, and purchased in 1927 by theater director Frank
Carrington, co-founder of the Paper Mill playhouse. The house was built in 1909
by Frederick Marquat, a US Army Corporal that served with Carrington’s father,
Major Frank Carrington.
The two families used
this retreat until 1927, at which point Frank bought the property and turned
the space into a nexus for the cultural development of mid-century arts. At the
time, the cottage was a rectangular, three bay bungalow. Carrington made two
wood-frame additions around 1940. Frank Carrington expanded the property with
the “Lone Hill Cottage” built in 1948. Carrington was active in the growing
arts community of Cherry Grove. He rented the property to his friends in the
community, including Truman Capote. In 1957, Capote developed a novella there
that would become Breakfast at Tiffany's.
At one point Frank
Carrington was offered $1.5M for the property by a real estate developer but
was more interested in preserving the site, so sold it to the National Park
Service in 1969 for approximately $300,000 and continued living there until
1975. National Park Service Ranger Bob Freda lived there for the next twenty
years. The Carrington House is probably the oldest surviving building in Cherry
Grove.
In 2016, the property was placed on the
National Registry of Historic Places.
Sources:
“Carrington House.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia
Foundation, 1 June 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_House
Hildebrandt, Bill. “The History of Fire Island’s
Carrington House.” Fire Island Pines Historical Society, Fire Island
Pines Historical Society, 11 Jan. 2026, www.pineshistory.org/the-archives/the-history-of-fire-islands-carrington-house
