Sag Harbor was already a thriving village in the days of the crown prior to 1776. It was for a brief time the port of entry for the state of New York. The original Customs House still stands although it has been moved to its present site. In the days before the revolution The James Howell Inn stood on the site of the present day American Hotel. During the revolutionary war, British officers were billeted there. In a daring 1778 raid across open water in small boats, a small detachment of patriots under the command of Colonel Jonathan Return Meigs seized control of the harbor by capturing the British Officers before they could set foot outside the Inn.

It is unclear what happened to the original inn, but the indications are that it burned during one of the periodic fires that raced through the old wooden structures in the crowded village. In 1824 a local cabinetmaker by the name of Nathan Tinker began construction of a brick edifice. It was probably used primarily as his residence.

By 1845, the whaling was near its economic peak. Sag Harbor was filled to capacity with ship’s supplies, whale oil,sailors and money. Nathan Tinker had a vision and set to work adding onto his original brick structure. When he was finished in 1846, the physical presence of the American Hotel was complete. Its function in the early days was rather colorful. Mercantile activity was carried out in the front of the building. We may imagine immense stocks of hemp and tar, harpoons, sailcloth, barrels of hard tack and dried cod piled at the ready. A boarding house operated in the rear of the structure.

The whaling industry suffered a rapid decline after 1846. Ships had to travel much greater distances to find their catch. One of the Whaling Ships from Sag Harbor is credited with being the first occidental craft to enter a Japanese port after Japan closed to foreigners more than two centuries earlier. One of the men connected with that voyage who was known as Captain Freeman and a prosperous local farmer by the name of Youngs bought the brick edifice built by Nathan Tinker in 1876. It was opened as The American Hotel shortly thereafter.

With a busy port and a rail terminus, Sag Harbor was a natural site for light manufacturing. From handmade silver ware in the early days to throttle assemblies for the lunar lander, the products of Sag Harbor manufacturing reflected the important historic events of the day. The American Hotel also reflected the cosmopolitan nature of the busy little village. In the surrounding towns accommodations were available in country inns or stage stops, but Sag Harbor boasted a downtown brick-face, three-story hotel with a bar, a restaurant and 25 rooms.

Sag Harbor entered a period of slow and gentle decline after World War One. Change slowed as well preserving many of the older homes and storefronts from violent "improvement". This somnolence deepened in the years immediately following World War Two.

The fortunes of the hotel were tied to the fortunes of the village, which reached a low water mark in the early nineteen seventies. In 1972 the present owner, Ted Conklin, acquired the premises. He proceeded slowly and carefully to return the hotel to a semblance of its former dignity. He enlarged and modernized the kitchen facilities and brought back the faded elegance of the dining rooms.

Once he had established the restaurant, which now has a world wide reputation for the quality of its food and service, one of the most important wine cellars in the country, Mr. Conklin turned his attention to the second and third stories. The rooms were enlarged and brought up to modern standards of comfort including private bathrooms. Antique furniture has been used throughout as well as period prints and appointments.

The restoration of The Hotel is an ongoing project, dedicated to preserving this jewel of Sag Harbor. The Historic Hotels of America National Trust for Historic Preservation recognized these efforts and included the Hotel in it's ranks in 1999.