The Montauk Association (Seven Sisters)

Seven shingled cottages on a bluff above the ocean, built 1882-84 for Arthur Benson and six friends from Brooklyn, and the reason Shingle Style matters here at all. McKim, Mead & White designed every one; Frederick Law Olmsted laid out the roads to follow the land rather than a grid. No cottage was made grander than its neighbours — the point was seven equals in open ground, which is why the group still reads as one idea rather than seven statements. They are lived in, so this is an exterior visit: drive Olmsted's roads and look up.