Each year, for one weekend in September, for the last twenty-seven years, the North Fork town of Greenport is host to the East End Maritime Festival, a three-day community-wide celebration of local nautical history.

The summer is winding to a close, and the mad rush of preparing to send the kids back to school is about to begin. But before we say goodbye to the lazy days at the beach, and the long nights out, there still is one place on the North Fork that beckons to us: Greenport.

Not long ago, running a business in Greenport was strictly a seasonal affair. If you were a shopkeeper, you shut your doors in the winter as soon as the last tourists left (unless, say, you sold, coffee). In recent years, however, increase in year-round residents has got some business owners making it through the winter.

What with all the quaint towns on the North Fork, it seems unfair to play favorites, but there’s no denying that  with its gorgeous old houses, leafy streets, and syrupy marine light, Orient has a charm all its own.

Perhaps because it has no bars, restaurants, or souvenir shops, Orient, the easternmost village on the North Fork, isn’t as popular with summer visitors as its neighbors to the west. Yet for the writers, artists, architects, farming families, and nature-lovers who live here, Orient’s secluded location at the end of a causeway is a big part of its allure.

The North Fork is the type of place people dream about spending their summers on. It has everything from beaches to vineyards, to locally caught seafood and freshly grown produce. As the stars light up over the Long Island Sound each night, it’s easy to get caught up in the beauty, the peace, and the magic that is the North Fork.

Questions and Answers with Elizabeth Weigart of the Times Vintage in Greenport Q: How did you get to the North Fork? A: I moved to NYC when I was 18, for school—Marymount Manhattan. I studied studio arts. While I’ve always loved vintage, my first love has always been art.

Leah Sullivan | Century 21 Albertson Realty | Cell: 631.816.0876 Leah is blessed to call the North Fork her year-round home and for the opportunity to raise her children in the same hamlet that she was raised. She enjoys a deep-rooted connection to the community and environment, and has firsthand knowledge of the area and its’ unique history.

Strong’s Marine has set the benchmark for Long Island boating since 1945, when Stewart Strong opened the family’s first marina in Lindenhurst. Three generations later, with headquarters on the North Fork, locations on Peconic Bay, Mattituck Inlet and across Long Island, the Strong family continues to build Strong’s Marine into the region’s leading purveyor of luxury boating.