Villages

From a century ago, documenting the plight of the Montauk Indians. And more from the pages of The Star of yore.

Three changes to the operation of its beaches were on the East Hampton Village Board’s agenda Friday, all of them with an eye to maximizing income from the village’s top resource.

Lacking the kind of synergy between restaurants and retail that might draw more off-season shoppers, Amagansett's Main Street on a winter weekday can feel in need of a bit of revival. That will all change when the high season arrives, but what has people talking now is the news last month of the sale of the Main Street Tavern building and how a restaurant in that spot could boost morale on Main Street.

The closest George Washington got to East Hampton was probably Roe Tavern, seen here, in Setauket during his 1790 tour of Long Island. Its proprietor was part of the Culper Spy Ring.

East Hampton Town’s training for future lifeguards and for summertime participants in its Junior Lifeguard ocean readiness program will begin on March 5 in the pool at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter.

From 1923, a report of the tragic death by suicide of a gray squirrel, and how his home in a Main Street elm was swiftly taken over by a doppelganger in black fur.

The Amagansett Village Improvement Society, in carrying out its mission to keep the hamlet beautiful, is having trees pruned on Main Street from the Amagansett School east to St. Michael’s Lutheran Church. The work, which is being done by Whitmores, will continue through the rest of this month. Look for the AVIS banner to see which trees are being pruned.

This photo shows a group gathered in front of the East Hampton Steam Laundry, which experienced several fires, a variety of owners, and a number of iterations.

Red-breasted mergansers rely on the open waters of our winter bays and harbors from November until April. They’ll be there if you walk anywhere along the bay side of the South Fork, between Southampton and Montauk. While they prefer salt water, they also frequent Hook Pond, Sagaponack Pond, and Georgica Pond.

Remembering Pedro Moreno, soccer player, house painter, and friend to many.

The shape of catastrophes to come? In 1998 the Kellehers of Sagaponack saw their beachfront house collapse into the sea. And more from past pages of The Star.

It was a moment six years in the making: Kim Covell, founder of the Flying Point Foundation for Autism, has signed a lease with Southampton Youth Services to establish a community center for teens and young adults with autism, the organization announced on Jan. 24. To be located within 1,500 square feet of the existing S.Y.S. building on Majors Path in North Sea, The Point, as it will be called, has a target opening date of mid-March.

Among those experimenting with a popular new artificial intellegence web tool called ChatGPT is Rabbi Joshua Franklin of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, who used it to “write” a sermon in December, then had his congregation guess its source. The tool's capabilities have people like Rabbi Franklin pondering “the qualities that make us who we are.”

This image from the Amagansett Historical Association’s Carleton Kelsey Collection shows Emil Gardell (1876-1962) driving a Boston Cutter sleigh through the snow.

Like it or not, most East Enders are familiar with Lyme disease and the difficulty in getting an accurate and speedy diagnosis. But the process may ultimately get easier, thanks in part to work done by Dr. George Dempsey, the medical director of East Hampton Family Medicine.

The Southampton Hospital Foundation announced this week that it will break ground this month on the Stony Brook Medicine East Hampton Satellite Emergency Department next to the East Hampton Healthcare Center on Pantigo Place.

Where game, and not just deer, was once plentiful: From 1923, an eye-opening tally of what hunters took across Suffolk County.

Laura Elizabeth MacPherson and Russell Edward Young of East Hampton were married on Jan. 21 at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk with the Rev. Liam McDonald officiating. A reception followed at Scoville Hall in Amagansett.

While the bees are mostly hive-bound and slowed by the cold of winter, it’s not a time of rest for a beekeeper.

In this letter, Thomas Jefferson seeks the help of the Bridgehampton-born David Gelston, who had been appointed by Jefferson as collector of customs for New York in 1801.

Looking for a walk and a challenge, I went to the Mulvihill Preserve in Noyac to hunt for wild chickadees. Hard? No. A unique reason to be in the woods? Yes. A winter activity for a winter bird.

In praise of pork liver from 1948, and other gems from The Star’s past.

This photo of skating on a frozen Town Pond in East Hampton by Eunice Telfer Juckett Meeker dates from 1954 to 1961.

While Dr. King’s example was one of peaceful but powerful advocacy, “we still have a long way to go,” said James Banks, a social worker, college professor, and social justice advocate who was the keynote speaker at Calvary Baptist Church’s annual Martin Luther King’s Birthday service on Monday.

It’s a cold and still January afternoon as the commercial fishing vessel Kimberly makes its way through the inlet at Lake Montauk, which is scheduled to be dredged in October, from 12 to 17 feet, by the Army Corps of Engineers. That’s great news for captains and crew alike, but there’s a catch. The dredging, according to the Montauk attorney Andy Hammer, could make a bad situation worse at the bustling commercial-fishing boat basin attached to Inlet Seafood.

The Sag Harbor Village Board announced on Jan. 10 its intention to extend the village’s paid parking program for 2023. The board would like to extend the season by approximately six weeks, so it would run from May 1 until Nov. 30. In 2022, Long Wharf was converted to paid parking from May 17 until Oct. 10. The board voted to hold a public hearing on the matter at the next meeting, on Feb. 14.

A boy’s fear for the fate of a goat back in 1898 is one of the lighter touches from The Star of yore.

On Saturday, teams of birders spread out across New York State to count freshwater ducks, saltwater ducks, and geese for the annual New York State Ornithological Association waterfowl count. Locally, from Shinnecock Inlet to Montauk Point, seven groups of birders faced winds and temperatures that were stubbornly in the mid-30s to peer into our ponds, bays, and coves. They located 31 species of waterfowl for a total of 10,451 birds. More than half that number, 5,303, were the familiar Canada goose.

The property on Long Island Avenue in Sag Harbor where Friends of Bay Street had planned to build a new Bay Street Theater is instead being put on the market, The Star learned this week.

This December 1989 photo from The East Hampton Star’s archive depicts Percy Heath, Montauker, sportfisherman, artist, and bassist who co-founded the Modern Jazz Quartet.