Remsenburg is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

located in the Town of Southampton, Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, United States. There are no stoplights and very few commercial businesses.

History

As early as 1712, meadows in Speonk were leased to cattle-owners from Southampton. Most of the early settlers of Speonk came west from Southampton and Bridgehampton in the 1740s to clear the forests and build farms. During the 1880s, duck farms thrived in Speonk, but few survived past the turn of the century. The name Speonk was inspired by a Native American word meaning ''high place''. An 1897 Long Island Rail Road catalog listed Speonk, noting that that name "certainly sounds like the call of a frog." Some residents pressed to change the name to Remsenburg, to honor a prominent resident, ''Charles Remsen'', who had donated a new Presbyterian Church. Today, both names remain in use, each covering different areas of the community. The area close to the bay is called Remsenburg, and the more bucolic inland area is still called Speonk. During the twentieth century, its most famous resident was the English writer

P.G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jee ...

. He wrote many of the escapades of

Bertie Wooster Bertram Wilberforce Wooster is a fictional character in the comedic Jeeves stories created by British author P. G. Wodehouse. An amiable English gentleman and one of the "idle rich", Bertie appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose intelligenc ...

and his manservant,

Jeeves Jeeves (born Reginald Jeeves, nicknamed Reggie) is a fictional character in a series of comedic short stories and novels by English author P. G. Wodehouse. Jeeves is the highly competent valet of a wealthy and idle young Londoner named Berti ...

, from a home on Basket Neck Lane in Remsenburg. Other residents of note include the songwriter

Frank Loesser Frank Henry Loesser (; June 29, 1910 – July 28, 1969) was an American songwriter who wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals ''Guys and Dolls'' and ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'', among others. He won a Tony ...

, who wrote for

Broadway show Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Th ...

s including ''

Guys and Dolls ''Guys and Dolls'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also bo ...

''; the playwright

Guy Bolton Guy Reginald Bolton (23 November 1884 – 4 September 1979) was an Anglo-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the US, he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred ...

, who collaborated with Wodehouse on ''

Anything Goes ''Anything Goes'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap ant ...

;'' Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee;

Sandy Becker George Sanford Becker (February 19, 1922 – April 9, 1996), who was known professionally as Sandy Becker, was an American television announcer, actor, and comedian who hosted several popular children's programs in New York City. The best known ...

, a New York children's

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

host,

Dave Garroway David Cunningham Garroway (July 13, 1913 – July 21, 1982) was an American television personality. He was the founding host and anchor of NBC's ''Today'' from 1952 to 1961. His easygoing and relaxing style belied a lifelong battle with depressi ...

, the original host of

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

's ''

Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...

'' when it first aired in January 1952, and

Leo-Arthur Kelmenson Leo-Arthur Kelmenson (January 3, 1927 – August 30, 2011) was an American advertising executive. He was chief executive of Kenyon & Eckhardt and the Bozell Group. A confidant and close associate of Lee Iacocca, he was known for contributing the ...

, advertising executive known for his association with Lee Iacocca and his advertising campaign for Chrysler. Remsenburg is an exclusive area, and many well known actress/actors/playwrights/directors live in this hamlet of Southampton.

Geography

Remsenburg is located at

geographic coordinates The geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or ellipsoidal coordinate system for measuring and communicating positions directly on the Earth as latitude and longitude. It is the simplest, oldest and most widely used of the various ...

40° 48' 28" North, 72° 42' 32" West (40.807709, -72.708923). As Remsenberg is located within the Town of Southampton, County of Suffolk, and is in on the Atlantic Ocean and bay, it is considered to be geographically, historically, and culturally part of the

Hamptons The Hamptons, part of the East End of Long Island, consist of the towns of Southampton and East Hampton, which together comprise the South Fork of Long Island, in Suffolk County, New York. The Hamptons are a popular seaside resort and one of ...

External links

Newsday - Long Island History: Remsenburg (at www.archive.org)

Where Does the Hamptons Actually Begin and End?
{{authority control Southampton (town), New York Hamlets in Suffolk County, New York Hamlets in New York (state) Populated coastal places in New York (state)