Southampton Town Will Buy Neptune Beach Club, Make It a Museum

The Southampton Town Board voted unanimously Tuesday to use the town’s Community Preservation Fund to buy Neptune Beach Club in East Quogue and turn it into a museum and boardwalk.

Neptune Beach Club, where the popular DJ Theo spins each Sunday during the summer, is also known as The Drift on summer Saturday nights. The club has sometimes drawn the ire of its Dune Road neighbors because of noise, traffic and drug arrests.

The owner has agreed to sell the 2.78-acre parcel for $3.2 million. The town further budgeted $1.2 million from the CPF for renovating the building and parking area and for constructing a boardwalk connecting the beach club property to the town’s Tiana Activity Center next door, which was formerly Summers Beach Club.

Councilman Jim Malone pointed out Tuesday that Neptune Beach Club is a historic site.  “What’s really important with regard to this property is the record shows that the Neptune Beach Club—that will now be town-owned—is one of the earliest known African-American Coast Guard stations in the nation,” Malone said.

The town board unanimously resolved to include a museum aspect in the renovated building recognizing this history.