Fire Island Pines is a gay island resort and beach destination that truly appeals to the luxury minded. We build on the casual island beach heritage, offering a luxury lifestyle resort experience. In addition to the beautiful beaches and stunning homes, the Pines harbor is home to a popular gym and pool, lounges, cafes, a hotel, a gourmet market and some fabulous restaurants. We also host two major events, Ascension and Bay Dance, that bring worldwide attendance to the island. The Pines is how “downtown NYC does the beach.”
The Pines is well-known by leaders in fashion, design, photography and the arts and has rapidly become the center of beach chic, taste and elegance.
Although a predominantly gay community, the Pines welcomes diversity and provides a wonderful home and vacation destination for anyone who appreciates a beautiful beach. This unique island town offers the best of both worlds in terms of peaceful relaxation and exciting nightlife. The Pines is a car-free community, only accessible by ferry, adding to its unique sense of tranquility.
Fire Island is a barrier island on the southern side of Long Island. Topographically, the Pines is virtually an extension of nearby Sunken Forest. Situated on a narrow portion of the island, the area closer to the bay is covered with dense growth almost concealing many of the homes built unobtrusively in the background. Lacing through the Pines are its most famous features, "rollercoaster" boardwalks, winding their way up, down and across the community in a pattern made to follow the natural terrain.
Originally the site of a Coast Guard station built in 1876 and known as Lone Hill Saving Station, the area was purchased by the Home Guardian Company in 1924 but little in the way of development occurred until after World War II. There was no electricity or amenities until 1960 when a 100 unit co-op complex was built. Builders stuck close to the cautious plans drawn up a quarter century before and allowed for preservation of the area's natural state.
The results are readily apparent today: houses are modern, sleek and stylish and blend in well with the surrounding terrain. With more than 700 homes, the Pines is not crowded for its size, large building lots helping to mitigate crowding. The careful integration of land and architecture has bequeathed a community that is modern, spacious and esthetically pleasing. In the three centuries since Isaac Stratford established his whaling station, the Island has undergone many changes . . . it has developed into a vacation-land whose few year-round inhabitants derive their living from providing goods and services to the summer visitors.
While thousands of Fire Islanders return each summer to live and vacation, thousands more make the voyage for the first time to see if all the things they heard are really true. And they are! You will discover, as everyone who visits does, that special secret magic of the Pines.