Backstory: Saying Goodbye to Corrigan's Gas Station in Bridgehampton

Six months ago, a new gas station opened for business on the Montauk Highway by Hayground in Bridgehampton. It was not a gas station in the regular sense. Called “Rever,” a French name that means “Dream” in English, the gas pumps were removed and now it featured about 50 used cars on its two-acre site, all of which were high end BMWs, Jaguars, Lamborghinis, Saabs, Austin Healeys and Bentleys, all for sale.

It had replaced an earlier gas station on this site called “Corrigan’s” which was the name on the entrance above the repair bays for at least 80 years. That gas station was a real gas station, which included two garage bays where mechanics could fix things, all manner of sedans, convertibles, delivery vans and farm trucks. There were also gas pumps and a little office with a rest room.

The old “Corrigan’s” was a historic vestige from a long time ago. Corrigan himself, a handsome Irishman, had been instrumental in bringing auto racing to Bridgehampton. In a short documentary about the time after World War II when sports car auto racing was held on the public streets of that town, Corrigan can be seen standing on a platform at the starting line talking into a microphone. He was a founder of auto racing here, and excited to wave the white flag as the dozen or so sports cars roared off down Sagaponack Road to start the race. You can see this film today at the Bridgehampton Museum by the monument downtown.

How long Corrigan ran Corrigan’s I don’t know but surely, as the years passed and 2023 turned into 2024, his gas station was still in business, one of the very oldest facilities of it’s kind in the Hamptons.

If Corrigan’s had been the longest running auto shop in the Hamptons, Rever, it has turned out, is the shortest.

The property, gas station included, was sold, reportedly for two million dollars, with the old Corrigans cleared out during the summer of 2024. The place got snazzied up in renovations that took about a year and reportedly cost the new owners a further million dollars, and then opened, without gas pumps, as a brand new facility with that French name and all those wonderful classic and antique automobiles along with about fifty used Jags, Range Rovers and Citroens that passers by could marvel at and, if rich enough, be able to pay the high cost of and drive off. Not only had the whole place been scrubbed clean and repainted in a fetching new color, but the cars themselves were beautifully detailed.

Now it turns out that the building is once again for sale. Reportedly there has been a dispute between the owners of Rever, possibly even a lawsuit.

About two thirds of these automobiles have been moved off. For Sale signs are attached to the building. The other third of the cars, it seems, were apparently not worth moving, at least not yet. Having been parked between two vehicles that might have each sold for six figures that are now gone, they sit, rusted and forlorn, a sort of proof that deep down there in the innards, there was a tad of not so good stuff among the gold. Sad. But a wakeup call.

I guess we’ll just have to see what comes next. Seventy five years for Corrigan’s and now not much more than 75 days for Rever. Dream on.

Have a East End real estate story? Want to share? Text us at 516-527-3566. We’ll call you back, and then write it up for this weekly column. –Dan