Welcome to Springs

I’M STARTING TO EXPLORE my new neighborhood, bit by bit.

The main attraction here is the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center on Springs Fireplace Road, below, an 1879 farmhouse that was home to Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, two of the leading lights of Abstract Expressionist painting. When I have time, I’ll take the tour; I look forward to seeing Krasner’s collection of eclectic furniture and the floor of the barn studio, encrusted with Pollock’s famous paint spatters.

In the meantime, I had a lovely chat with the assistant director, a longtime local named Ruby Jackson, who was friendly with the woman who sold me this cottage (whom I never got to meet). Ruby said she was an avid gardener who created a ‘work of art’ in what is now my backyard. After next week, when landscapers come to clear the overgrown, neglected masses of weeds and brush, I hope to see more of it and take my own gardening cues from there.

With my daughter Zoe, who’s here helping me with myriad handywoman projects, I checked out the Green River Cemetery, where Pollock, Krasner, and other notable artists are buried underneath some unconventional headstones.

No, Pollock wasn’t Jewish, but it looks like many of his visitors are, or at least they’re following the Jewish tradition of leaving stones on a grave marker.

Below, the grave of Stan Vanderbeek, the experimental filmmaker.

The official Springs Historic District seems to consist of about four buildings, including Ashwagh Hall, used for art exhibitions; the public library; a onetime blacksmith shop; and a cute general store (a deli, really, with above-average offerings) adjacent to old-time gas pumps and a shed, which turn into an antique store on weekends.

Above, the library and Springs Historical Society, which I have yet to find open (hours are short).

But the real glory of the area are two incredible beaches, one at Maidstone Park, a long crescent of white sand rimming Gardiner’s Bay, and the other at Louse Point, below, at the end of a spit of land jutting into Accobonac Harbor. Both were near-deserted yesterday, except for the birds.