SAG HARBOR—A lot of people come out to the Hamptons in the hopes of reeling in the big fish: angel investors, celebrity friends, rich clients, maybe a billionaire husband or wife.
To brush up on some skills in that pursuit, they might think about turning to the often-overlooked Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum, an institution on Main Street with a veritable soup-to-nuts approach to sailing and whaling. Here, one can find art exhibits with various associations to whales and the sea; a huge cauldron that must have been used for boiling down blubber; longitude tables; slabs of skeletal whale bones; a turnkey “used for pulling teeth” that was carried by the captain, who would act as doctor and dentist; and, perhaps, most useful in the Hamptons, handcuffs for “confining the unruly sailor.”
There is also, of course, a gift shop, with tchotchkes like a puzzle in a sardine can.
Over the weekend, as a sort of welcome to summer, Eric and Gina Hadley decided to make their annual Memorial Day party for their friends, which in the past they have thrown at their Sag Harbor home, into a benefit on the grounds of the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum.
“I’ve spent my entire life in Sag Harbor,” said Ms. Hadley, an entrepreneur. “And as an only child, I spent a lot of rainy days at the Whaling Museum. The things I’ve forgotten about whaling could fill a book.”
Ms. Hadley said it always surprised her that the community had, at one point, been made of whaling captains out on the sea and their families back home who couldn’t keep track of where they were or if they’d even be coming back.
“It was such a hideous, horrible way to make a living,” she explained. “But there’s a whole generation of folks who’ve never been to the museum and have never seen how amazing this site is.”
“Besides, it’s so great for kids,” said Mr. Hadley, a sales-and-marketing executive at the Weather Channel.
“There are a lot of miniature pirates running around,” noticed the actor Kyle MacLachlan, whose son was one of them.
Many locals and Mr. and Ms. Hadley’s friends brought their children, who enjoyed the efforts of a balloon stylist (he made a lot of swords), the entertainment of a juggler and food from Rolling in Dough, a local pizza truck.
“I just came for the pizza,” said the advertising executive Andrew Essex, who came with his family.
“I say, ‘Enjoy the pizza, and exercise tomorrow,’ ” added Jay Galluzzo, the co-founder of the spin studio Flywheel, who was joined by his wife as well as a handful of Flywheel instructors.
The Greek Revival-style building that houses the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum was originally constructed in 1845 as the private home of
Benjamin Huntting II and his family at a cost of $7,000. In 1918, after changing hands, it was adapted into a Masonic temple. The museum was founded in earnest in 1936.
To finish a restoration of the space, the building needs around $250,000, said Greg Therriault, the museum’s manager, including redoing the porch, structural repairs and the roof, which features original whale teeth. A recent step to repaint the exterior involved scraping 18 layers off, Mr. Hadley added.
The Sag Harbor strip where the Whaling Museum resides is experiencing a kind of renaissance. A restoration of the John Jermain Memorial Library across the street began in 2009 and will hopefully be complete by the fall of 2014.
Though many young families seemed to be enjoying the festivities, not everyone was happy with the catering, which also included sausage sliders, wine from the Channing Daughters Winery and Dreamy iced coffee and ice cream from nearby Sylvester & Co.
“You don’t have any whale meat on the barbecue,” joked Nicholas Wentworth of the Century Arts Foundation, which has bestowed grants upon the Whaling Museum project.
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