LVIS History

It is said that the glories of East Hampton would be only memories without LVIS.

• Imagine… Main Street without the open vista of our village green and without our beloved pond. Had it not been for the LVIS, the pond would have been drained and filled in 1895. And the ladies also prevented the green from being turned into a “city-like” park.

• Imagine… Main Street lined with telephone poles and wires. In 1902 the ladies also saw to it that when electric lighting finally came to the village, all the lines would be buried.

• Imagine… Gas stations along Main Street. In 1925 they fought against gas stations on Main Street and prevented one from going up on the Sheep Fold, the grass triangle across from the now Post Office.

• Imagine… Homes on Main Street that are a hodge-podge of architectural design. In 1974, through the work of LVIS, the area all around the Town pond was placed on the National Register of Historic places.

• Imagine… Our village lanes without our majestic trees. Since its inception, LVIS has added at least 20 trees to the village each year. That means thousands of trees now line our streets thanks to LVIS.

• And what would our village look like without our glorious elms? By 1970 Dutch elm disease had killed 77 million elms throughout the country. Today about 100 village elms still stand, each over 100 years old, thanks to a complex treatment program developed by LVIS.

But there’s so much more, like our series of LVIS Cookbooks—our newest came out for our 125th anniversary in 2020. And the hundreds and hundreds of college scholarships we’ve awarded over the years, totaling over $193,000 in 2023.