92 Photos
Troy Buckner in the rock garden designed by Dorothy Lichtenstein on the property where his father, sculptor Hal Buckner, lived and had a studio. BRENDAN J. O'REILLY
18 Flying Point Road, Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
18 Flying Point Rd Southampton. MEDIA HAMPTONS FOR CORCORAN
A Water Mill property that hosts a former dairy barn turned artist’s studio and a modern artist’s studio, both with an impressive provenance, has come on the market, presenting the next owner with a range of opportunities.
The property at 18 Flying Point Road belonged to the artist Hal Buckner, who died in 2024. He had purchased it in 2003 with his longtime partner, philanthropist Dorothy Lichtenstein, the widow of pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. Dorothy Lichtenstein also died last year. Both left their marks on the flag lot, and the property’s artistic pedigree goes back even further.
Buckner’s son Troy successfully sought landmarking of the former dairy barn this year. Landmark status prohibits the demolition of the barn or alteration of its exterior appearance, but Troy Buckner explained while giving a tour of the property recently that it also opens up the option for the property to be subdivided, with the historic barn on one parcel and the modern studio on the other. And whether the property is subdivided or not, the modern studio is eligible for expansion.
Hal Buckner gave the 2.07-acre property a clever name.
“It used to be a dairy farm so my father named it, aptly, Udder Acres,” Troy Buckner said.
He explained that his father had used the historic barn as his studio. Hal Buckner was a sculptor known for his thin metal sculptures inspired by the female form.
“I like to get three or four hours in of work every day,” Hal Buckner told The Southampton Press in 2015. “I don’t feel comfortable unless I get something accomplished. If I don’t get something accomplished, I feel like I’m wasting a day. … This is all I do — my art. I mean, I get up in the morning, it’s here. Look at the layout I have. Just walk through the door and I’m in the studio.”
He gained a little separation between his living quarters — inside what had been the milking parlor attached to the barn — and his workspace when he had a new studio built on the property.
A small, circa 1900 barn that had previously been converted into a cottage stood there. It was razed in 2014 to make way for a two-story studio with a basement and an elevator, built by Koral Bros. of Southampton. The studio has a double-height ceiling that allowed Buckner to make large-scale works there. A catwalk on the second level opens to a balcony that overlooks a rock garden Lichtenstein designed.
“This really is Dorothy’s rock garden,” Troy Buckner said.
It was 2006 or 2007, and Lichtenstein came up with a plan to use an old cement pad where a barn had burned down in the 1960s.
“It was just a foundation, and Dorothy was kind of thinking, ‘What should I do with this?’” Troy Buckner recalled.
She ordered large boulders from Bistrian Materials in East Hampton.
“These boulders were brought in by one dump truck each, and earth shaking when they came down,” Buckner said.
The rock garden also includes a stone post-and-lintel entry and a stone bridge as well as a stone table.
“The bridge is just really beautiful to walk across … It really is peaceful,” he said.
Lichtenstein worked with Bob Gurr of R. Gurr Stone Art, but it was her design, Buckner explained. “I think she was quietly proud of it,” he said.
Hal Buckner’s sculptures are also on display on the treed grounds as well as sculpture by the current tenant of the barn studio, Salvadoran-American artist Oscar Molina.
The Landmark Qualification Report prepared by the Southampton Town Landmarks & Historic Districts Board names the historic barn the Dimon Dairy Barn and Studio.
The Dimon family lived and farmed in the area since the early 1800s, operating the Clover Farm Dairy from circa 1890 to 1925, followed by a potato farm, the report states. The report found that the barn was built circa 1915 by prominent builder C. Elmer Smith, who also built Southampton Hospital and was a resident of Southampton Village.
“The farm received electricity in 1919 and advertised frequently in the local newspaper about the value of their healthy, pure milk, along with their high quality potatoes,” the report states.
The 98-acre-plus Dimon property was subdivided in 1985, the report continues. Artist and author Lynne Heffner Ferrante — who trained at the Museum of Modern Art, the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League — purchased the dairy barn and converted it into a residence and studio circa 1989. She lived there with her husband, Joe Ferrante, an abstract sculptor and writer.
Lynne Heffner Ferrante described her work as abstract expressionist and assemblage. She later owned Chrysalis art gallery in Westhampton Beach and was president of the Southampton Artists Association.
According to the report, Lynne Heffner Ferrante confirmed that a number of the windows in the converted barn were salvaged from the Westhampton Free Library after its 1985 renovation. A 1907 photo of the library suggests that many small divided light panes in the barn are at least that old.
In 1996, she sold the property to photographer Ronald Buchter, who was a member of the nonprofit East End Photographers Group, and his wife, Carol Buchter, a real estate agent.
“In 2004, the Buchters sold the property to the artist and sculptor Harold (‘Hal’) Buckner (1938-2024), and his partner, Dorothy Lichtenstein, (1939-2024), the widow of artist Roy Lichtenstein (d. 1997), cementing the status of the property as a residence and working studio for local artists and sculptors,” the report states.
The report notes that Buckner studied under painter and sculptor Larry Rivers and taught at various universities, including Long Island University and Pierce College. It also cites Dorothy Lichtenstein’s work co-founding the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, and as a highly regarded philanthropist and founder of the creative writing and film program at Stony Brook Southampton. And in 2017, she established the Dorothy Lichtenstein ArtsReach Fund for art and social justice at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill.
“The Dimon Barn Studio is where Mr. Buckner produced numerous works of art, and it quickly became established as an artistic and cultural hub where Buckner and Lichtenstein entertained their friends and colleagues from the literary and art world,” the report states.
The historic barn is closest to the rear entrance to the property, off Diamon Court while the new studio is closest to the flagpole driveway off Flying Point Road. With two established entrances, the parcel is well situated for subdivision.
Troy Buckner explained that he was inspired to seek landmark status when he saw what transpired at the adjacent property, which was also part of the Dimon farm.
The circa 1883 Dimon Family Farmhouse was at risk of demolition. Developer Jason Khan had purchased 14 Flying Point Road and had planned to raze the house and replace it with a new house, a pool, a detached garage and a recreational building. But then Southampton Town Planning Director David Wilcox presented Khan with an alternative: preserve the historic house in exchange for a subdivision that would enable Khan to build his new home side by side with the Dimon farmhouse, which would be restored and landmarked.
When Troy Buckner went to the landmarks board with another former Dimon property and suggested the barn deserved to be landmarked as well, the board readily agreed.
The report cites two criteria for landmarking that the Dimon Dairy Barn and Studio met: “Possesses special character or historic or aesthetic interest of value as part of the cultural, political, economic or social history of the locality, region, state or nation” and “Embodies the distinguishing characteristics of an architectural type, period, or style or contains elements of design, details, materials or craftsmanship which represent a significant innovation.”
The Dimon Dairy Barn and Studio — along with the Hal Buckner studio and a 2014 two-car garage — at 18 Flying Point Road in Water Mill is listed with Patricia Garrity at Corcoran for $8 million.
