Villages

A large crowd watches a baseball game in this glass-plate image. Most likely the players are part of the East Hampton Baseball Club, first mentioned in The Star in 1895.

The anniversary of the 1942 interception of Nazi saboteurs who landed near Atlantic Avenue Beach will be observed on Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Amagansett Life-Saving and Coast Guard Station.

With air quality levels in Suffolk County sitting just under 200, a level considered unhealthy and nearing very unhealthy, on Thursday morning, some people accustomed to working outside took the day off. For most, however, it was a regular day, despite the peach-colored air.

Rabbi Aizik Baumgarten of Chabad of the Hamptons in East Hampton donated one of his kidneys to Terri Levin Davgin, a longtime congregant who was suffering from kidney failure. “When there’s an opportunity to help, we help. I thanked God for the opportunity for the chance to save a life,” he said.

Generations of the Dominy family built the bits and pieces that made life work in the 18th century. East Hampton Village is nearly finished with a $2.3 million restoration of the house and shops that will be known as the Dominy Shops Museum.

“There was a real focus on domestic violence and other important social causes during Covid,” Francesca Odell, co-president of the Retreat’s board of directors said at the All Against Abuse benefit Saturday. “And, now that we’re coming out of that, I think there’s a tendency to think that those issues aren’t as crucial. But when you look at the root causes of domestic violence, they’re all still present.”

A look back at headlines from years past.

To share in Pride Month with the L.G.B.T.Q.+ community is "a loving embrace," the founder of Hamptons Pride, Tom House, told a huge crowd in Herrick Park on Saturday after the conclusion of the second East Hampton Village Pride Parade. It "goes beyond tolerance and acceptance. . . . It says, 'We value you and we're better for your presence; we're so glad you're here.' "

“This is not an easy holiday. It’s not an easy thing to lose someone in service for our country,” said Jimbo Theinert, the guest speaker on Memorial Day in Sag Harbor, and brother of First Lt. Joseph J. Theinert of Shelter Island, who was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan on June 4, 2010.

Wedding traditions are as numerous and varied as the couples marrying, and one for many Jewish couples is the huppah, a canopy meant to represent the home soon to be shared by the couple. At the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, the huppah is not merely a temporary structure for weddings, but rather a permanent outdoor art installation.

Building on the resounding success of last year's inaugural event, Hamptons Pride is once again hosting a parade through East Hampton Village and a big after-party in Herrick Park on Saturday to celebrate L.G.B.T.Q.+ individuals and allies at the start of Pride Month.

The Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, the Southampton Town Trustees, and the Nature Conservancy have installed 13 split-rail fences at sensitive junctures along the greenbelt to discourage mountain bikers, e-bikers, dirt bikers, and A.T.V. riders. But they get ripped out.

The year 1973 saw the rise of women in East Hampton Town politics, while 1998 saw the rise of the Rennert property in the Sagaponack dunes.

As installation of the South Fork Wind farm’s monopile foundations nears, the first American-built offshore wind substation is making its way to the site. A ship carrying the substation set sail from Ingleside, Tex., on May 24. The 1,500-ton, 60-foot-tall substation will sit on a monopile foundation within the 12-turbine, 132-megawatt wind farm, collecting the power generated by the turbines and connecting it to the electrical grid.

The stirring strains of “You’re a Grand Old Flag” grew louder as Monday’s Memorial Day parade made its way from Main Street to Hook Mill in East Hampton Village. But the patriotic music, the magnificent spring sunshine, and the seeming entirety of East Hampton Town’s Little League participants and their parents belied the solemnity of the occasion.

Memorial Day observances in East Hampton and Sag Harbor Villages on Monday were both solumn and celebratory, as people lined the streets in both villages to salute veterans and remember the fallen. 

Abigail Balnis and Gabriel DeWalk were married on April 29 at the Randall House in Greer, S.C. The groom’s uncle Jonathan Powell officiated.

The East Hampton War Memorial seen here, installed for Veterans Day in 1924 adjoining the North End Cemetery, is traditionally decorated as part of the village’s Memorial Day observances.

Montauk’s Westlake Marina, a family-owned and operated business for nearly 60 years, has been sold to Hildreth Real Estate Advisors, which according to the Traded NY platform paid $14 million. In Amagansett, Hildreth Real Estate Advisors previously acquired the 136 Main Street and contiguous 11 Indian Wells Highway parcels in Amagansett’s commercial district.

Tapping into meditation techniques and other practices, the Center for Compassionate Leadership, founded by Laura Berland and Evan Harrel of Montauk, trains change-makers in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. People in the workplace, Mr. Harrel said, “want clarity, equity, purpose, and direction, and they want to be treated with respect, listened to, and treated as a fellow human being. All of those are elements of a compassionate leader.

On a “Big Day,” birding is just about numbers. It is spent, dawn to dusk, in search of birds; the goal to see as many different species as possible. May 13 was Global Big Day. The goal is always to find 100 species: We’ve never gotten there.

Jacqui Leader, who has spent 30 years as the creative director of the East End Special Players, was honored by State Senator Anthony Palumbo in Albany last week as his district’s Woman of Distinction.

The new owners of the Springs General Store had hoped to be open in time for this summer, but “I realized this was a much bigger project than I originally thought,” one said this week. Now they are targeting a June 2024 reopening.

“Cordial greetings” from The Star of yesteryear.

The East Hampton Historical Society and the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society have planned 20 collaborative events, starting next week and running through September, to highlight the area's history, with destinations including the Brooks-Park property in Springs, the Leisurama houses in Montauk, and the D’Amico Studio and Archives at Lazy Point.

“I truly love moving to a new place, discovering the history, people, what makes them special. I’m excited to do that here,” the Rev. Ben Shambaugh said from his office at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. After a six-month search, he was selected to replace the interim rector, Joseph L. Cundiff IV, who had served since the departure of the Very Rev. Denis C. Brunelle.

This cross-section elevation drawing from 1856 shows the lighthouse that illuminated Gardiner’s Island. It stood just over two stories tall on a sandy beach of little Gardiner’s Point Island from December of 1854 until early 1894.

It’s a truncated week in “The Way It Was,” but still, some things never change: mysterious movie production here, the scourge of Lyme disease, and the Montauk Lighthouse needing work.

ChangeHampton, a group of East Hampton Town residents concerned about climate change, biodiversity loss, and the sharp decline in insect and bird species, launched its 1000 Healthy Yards campaign on Saturday, aimed at stopping the use of pesticides and fertilizers and creating landscapes beneficial to pollinators and other native species.

Onshore cable installation for South Fork Wind has been completed, the developer announced this week, and the affected roadways have been restored. The offshore wind farm’s turbines are to be installed during the summer.