In 1979 Michelle Murphy and Robert Strada, a young couple who’d known each other only eight months, began to look for their perfect Hamptons house. Real estate agent Ceil Ackley took them to a shingle-style Amagansett house built in 1894 to give them an idea of the sort of old-world house they sought. Alas, it wasn’t for sale. Yet the pair fell so in love with the authentic relic of times past that a deal was soon struck.