The Secret Vacation Destination of the Super-Rich
If you’re from pretty much anywhere around the United States, when you think “weekend getaway,” you probably think about the beach or a mountain. Being in Atlanta, our options are Florida beaches or the Tennessee Smokey Mountains. Head up there on a Friday, grab a condo or a cabin and enjoy a few days away from the hustle and bustle of every day life. But what if you live in the northeast? What if you’re a finance bro working at Goldman or JPM and you need to disconnect for a few days on a government-mandated day off? Well if you’re overflowing with cash and want to sit in the real seat of American power, you’ll head to the secretive, shadowy stretch of island that few can afford to set foot in. This is The Hamptons.
The Hamptons seems like one of those places that started as some quaint little village and evolved into a luxury real estate behemoth, but that isn’t really the case. Originally founded in the 1800’s because of its “good potato ground” for farming, the agrarian lifestyle was quickly abandoned, due to its seafront nature and proximity to New York City. The wealth found this place QUICK. The New York Times wrote in 1893 about the area:
The beautiful villages clustering around old Southampton, including Quohue, Good Ground, the rest of the Hamptons, and the incomparable Shinnecock Hills combine to make as close an approach…