[6] It is a center of the summer resort and upscale locality at the East End of Long Island known as The Hamptons and is generally considered one of the area's two most prestigious communities.

Each original settler was allotted a village lot of several acres and rights in common to surrounding lands which were regulated by the town government.

A great deal of jockeying for position resulted, which took the form of legal proceedings conducted by the town government.

[9][10] In the late 19th century, after extension of the railway to Bridgehampton in 1870 by predecessors of the Long Island Rail Road, visitors began to summer, at first in boarding houses[11][12] on Main Street, then in "cottages," which sometimes were substantial estates, built on former farms and pastures in the village.

By the early 1890s the prices being commanded for cottage sites, as high as $10 thousand an acre, were the object of comment by the editors of The New York Times.

[7] It was during the 1910s and 20s[14] that most luxury estates were built by the very wealthy, mostly in the Eastern Plain, a previously undeveloped agricultural area.

[16] The Great Depression and World War II resulted in a lull, but full-scale building of cottages resumed in the 1950s and some of the large estates began to be broken up.

By 1968 the exclusive character of the "Summer Colony" had become so diluted by the merely rich that the column of that name in The East Hampton Star was discontinued.

The town offers a wide range of fine restaurants, boutiques, art galleries and theater.

Sporting activities are enjoyed with world class country clubs, beautiful beaches, excellent sailing, fishing and riding stables.

[21]History and surviving historic sites are detailed in "Village of East Hampton Multiple Area", a New York State study.

[14] On September 15, 2020 the retired Chief of Police Jerry Larsen was elected Mayor in a landslide victory under the Newtown Party political platform to revitalize the downtown and rebuild the village's infrastructure.

On June 21, 2022 the NewTown Party captured two more seats on the Village Board of Trustees for a 5-0 majority easily defeating the incumbent Arthur "Tiger" Graham.

Parking access to the Atlantic Ocean beaches within the village of East Hampton is severely restricted from May 1 to September 30.