Backstory: The History of Home Sweet Home in East Hampton

If you happen to be in East Hampton and decide to see the sights, you might wind up visiting an 18th century saltbox home on James Lane just off Main Street, now a museum, that is called “Home Sweet Home.” This home celebrates John Howard Payne, the man who wrote the lyrics to that song – we all know the wonderful lyrics – about how much he loved the place where he was born and grew up. It is sung frequently and even today, a classic, nostalgic tune that is known throughout the western world.

You will see many artifacts inside the dwelling that come from the era in which he lived – crockery, paintings, furniture. You will also see a bust of Mr. Payne, which sits on a table in the modest living room. But you will not see, although the people guiding you through the home might hint at it, any reference to the fact that he ever lived there. They might hem and haw. He had an aunt who is believed to have lived there, but nobody ever yearned and missed their home sweet home if they were just visiting the in-laws.

Fact is, there is no evidence whatsoever that Mr. Payne ever set foot in this place.

However, it’s still “Home Sweet Home.” Be it ever so humble.

John Howard Payne wrote the lyrics to “Home Sweet Home” in 1822 when, in England, he teamed up with composer Henry Bishop in creating a song for the romantic opera “Clari, the Maid of Milan,” in which he acted. The play sort of flopped, but the song was an instant sensation, and Payne might have returned home triumphantly to America – he was an American after all – but he didn’t. Instead, he and his partner took the show on the road where it sort of died into obscurity.

Payne did come home, but all the hubbub about the song was over when he did. He never got a dime for the work. He subsequently worked as an actor and then as a producer and director for awhile, apparently unsuccessfully, was sent to debtor’s prison because he couldn’t pay his debts for a time but after that his whereabouts became unknown.

So how did the East Hampton home known as “Home Sweet Home” get to become the historic place it is now, the place which Payne “missed” so much, sort of?

In 1907, 55 years after Payne’s death, the house was purchased by Gustav and Hanna Buek and though they kept the house as their summer residence, they just decided to make it a shrine to Payne. And so, piece by piece, they began to collect things that reminded them of him. They told their friends about him. At a certain point, a bust of Mr. Payne was discovered to have been on display in Prospect Park in Brooklyn but was now in a closet on Randall’s Island. It got purchased and brought “home.” It’s there now, in the living room, as noted earlier in this story.

And then, in 1927, the Bueks, apparently hard up for money but noting “Home Sweet Home” was this important historic residence, persuaded the Village of East Hampton to buy the home for $30,000 to keep it safe in perpetuity. This was an outlandish sum at the time. And so, there it is, ready for you to be shown through by a docent or village officer today.

Be it ever so humble.

By the way, in recent years, various homes have been put up for sale that have been “lived in” by a celebrity or two. Sometimes they just visited the house. But whatever. There are pictures. It increases the value of the home.

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