Southampton History Museum sues town over rights to historic Conscience Point

The Southampton History Museum is suing Southampton Town over the rights to a part of historic waterfront property, alleging the town illegally claimed ownership of it to block the eviction of a shellfish hatchery.

The nonprofit museum alleged the town conspired with the hatchery and Suffolk County to alter tax map records, designating Southampton as the owner of 2 of the 5 acres at Conscience Point.

The new tax map was issued by the Suffolk County Real Property Tax Service Agency in April and divides the property into two parcels owned by the museum and town.

The Aug. 13 filing in State Supreme Court in Suffolk County accuses the town of abusing its power for a “land grab.” The filing alleged the town circumvented due process that would have required what’s known as a quiet title action to definitively settle ownership disputes.

“We don’t take people’s land without due process,” Sheila Tendy, an attorney for the museum, said in an interview Friday. “Those are civil rights violations which are protected by federal law.”

Since 2015, the 2-acre portion of the property has housed the Conscience Point Shellfish Hatchery, which grows oysters and clams to repopulate local bays and promotes aquaculture to local students.

The museum declined to renew the hatchery's lease and began eviction proceedings in January. The museum alleged several lease violations, including subleasing to commercial oyster farmers and distributing shellfish to the public, restaurants and wholesalers, the filing said.

Commercial activities at the site “jeopardize” the museum’s status as a tax-exempt nonprofit, the suit said. “It’s hard to fathom just how distressed our founders would be to see the Town not only allow this beloved historic site to be commercially developed, but to see the Town play such an active role to facilitate it is just beyond comprehension,” museum board president Averitt Buttry said in a statement Friday.

Conscience Point is a town landmark and landing site of the first English settlers to Southampton in 1640. The museum says it has owned the site since 1910, but the town intervened in the eviction process, saying it owns 2 acres at the site based on deeds from 1880 and 1925.

Handwritten in flowing script, the 1880 deed states that the property owned by Jeremiah Reeves was “to be used as a public landing place for all the inhabitants of the town of Southampton, forever and for no other purpose,” according to a copy of the document filed in court records. The 1925 document also references public ownership of the property.

Attorneys for the museum, in court papers, say the deeds the town relies on are for an adjacent property — not the museum's land.

Southampton Town Attorney James Burke said the town ordered a title report that found the town is the rightful owner of the portion of the property where the hatchery is located. Those documents and title information were presented to the Suffolk County Department of Real Property in Riverhead, he said.

“They did their own review and agreed completely with title counsel and made the appropriate changes to the county records,” Burke said in an email Friday.

The museum seeks the annulment of the tax map ruling and asks the court to prohibit the town from intervening in the eviction. The lawsuit also asks for a preliminary injunction to block a proposed hatchery expansion at the site.

Southampton awarded the hatchery a $126,700 grant in 2023 to expand operations at the facility. The proposal includes installing a permanent water connection to expand hatchery operations and a new storage shed with a shellfish cooler and commercial ice machine.

Burke declined to comment on the lawsuit but said he hopes to reach a compromise.

“At the end of the day, the town and the museum have the same interests and goals so hopefully we will be able to work on a reasonable solution for all involved,” Burke said.

The sides are due in court Sept. 9.