I’ve come to the realization that houses tend to be much like people, in that each has its own unique story to tell. In fact, the Shingle Style house pictured at right occupies some highly valuable South Fork real estate. Originally built as a summer residence for Walter Edwards Jr., a lawyer, and his wife, Camilla Leonard Edwards, of New York City, Kilkare came to be part of the Georgica Association. 

In 1880, Oliver S. and Ruth E. Osborn sold approximately 50 acres of farmland in Wainscott to William H.S. Wood. Shortly thereafter, Wood sold 23 acres of this parcel to his friends Walter and Camilla Edwards.

The house is situated just steps from the Atlantic Ocean and within view of Georgica Pond, but it appears that not much thought went into designing it. According to “Memorandum on the History of the Georgica Association, 1880-1948” by George W. Pierson, “Camilla Leonard Edwards wanted her house to be 40 feet square [sic]. Aside from that, she had no particular design in mind. So the family called in a dock builder from Brooklyn, gave him a few dimensions and the injunction that the house must be extremely strong — then blithely set off for Europe.”

Though this seems careless, the Edwards family long enjoyed the property. After Walter Edwards died in 1895 at the age of 61, Camilla continued to use the house as a summer residence until her death at age 98 in 1936. Her comings and goings were noted frequently in The East Hampton Star. She was described as “always the first to arrive at the summer colony and the last to leave.” 

Ownership later fell to her son, William Henry Leonard Edwards (1870-1937), and his wife, Susan Sherman White Edwards (1870-1949), who would die at Kilkare. The house was sold out of family hands in 1975 and went back up for sale in 2017 for $55 million.

Gina Piastuck is the department head of the East Hampton Library's Long Island Collection.

Citing Murf’s Backstreet Tavern in Sag Harbor as a source of noise and nuisance, a focal point for police attention, and a “disorderly premise” at which the owner and manager are not supervising the crowd or how much the bartender is serving, the New York State Liquor Authority recently issued a series of civil penalties against the bar, including $10,000 in fines and a more restrictive liquor license that requires Murf’s to close at 2 a.m., two hours earlier than previously.

Jay Hamel, the bar’s owner and the licensee, pleaded no contest to the charges and said he plans to pay the fines by their due date, July 6, but insisted that he’s being unfairly targeted by the Sag Harbor Police Department.

At the village board meeting on June 12, a number of people protested the bar’s earlier closing time during a public hearing. Village Police Chief A.J. McGuire was in attendance and informed the public that the issue had nothing to do with the village board, since it was a directive from the liquor authority. Mr. Hamel then made his way to the podium and said that the true impetus for the penalties was the Police Department’s mistaken belief “that I have the number-one drug den in the Hamptons.”

On Friday, Mr. Hamel reiterated that claim, attributing the drug den accusation to Chief McGuire, and said that for the past few years he has often had four police officers posted on the “front flanks” of his property, as well as a police S.U.V. parked across the street shining its headlights into the bar from the parking lot of the Henry Persan and Sons hardware store.

Chief McGuire said on Tuesday that he never said Murf’s was a drug den, and insisted that the bar has not been singled out for attention. Regarding Mr. Hamel’s assertion that four officers are a persistent presence at his property, Mr. McGuire pointed out that the village “normally only has two officers at a time on shift.”

The S.L.A. made no mention of drugs in its charges against Murf’s, but there were repeated references to disorderly conduct, such as fights and disturbances on the street. The bar, said Jade Kraft, a public information specialist at the liquor authority, had been the site of 24 emergency calls since August 2014. In its charges, the S.L.A. specifically cited a March 8 incident that necessitated a police visit. A police report that week stated that Joel Kelsey had been at Murf’s and later returned to retrieve an item he had left behind. When he went back inside, Mr. Kelsey said that the bartender ushered him to the door and pushed him out. He told police that he wound up with a broken nose. He did not press charges, but wanted the incident documented.

Mr. Hamel disputed the S.L.A.’s findings about the number of emergency calls to his business, and said that Murf’s averages about two or three emergency calls a year. He called the accusation that there is no supervision “Bravo Sierra,” that is, “B.S.” He agreed to pay the fines and to accept the earlier closing time, he said, because his lawyers advised him that fighting the charges would be costly and could result in the loss of his liquor license. 

“One more hiccup and they’re going to have my license,” said Mr. Hamel. “The 4 o’clock ship is gone, we’re not getting that back. What we’re fighting for now is I don’t want to lose my house, and I don’t want put 10 local young adults out of work, and that’s what’s coming next.”

John Augustine Wick and Madeline Katherine Chiavini were married on the dock at the Devon Yacht Club in Amagansett on June 2. Rabbi Kyle Cotler, a friend of the couple, officiated, and a reception with dinner and dancing followed on the yacht club deck. 

The groom is the son of Deborah and Robert Wick of Amagansett. The bride’s parents are Margaret and Paul Chiavini of Reno, Nev.

Mr. Wick grew up sailing with his family at the yacht club. At sunset on his wedding day, he and his father retired the colors there. 

The groom is an analyst covering the consumer sector at Balyasny Asset Management in New York City, a multistrategy hedge fund. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematical economics from Pomona College in California. His wife is a vice president at Almanac Realty Investors, a private equity firm in New York. She has an undergraduate degree in economics and liberal studies from the University of Notre Dame, a master’s degree in commerce from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, and another master’s degree in finance from Claremont McKenna College in California.

They live on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

The bride’s uncle Paul Marshall Solomon played acoustic guitar for the wedding ceremony, and the bride walked down the aisle to Pachelbel’s Canon in D. She wore a silk off-the-shoulder gown by Suzanne Neville in London and a replica of the cap and veil her paternal grandmother, Rosemarie Chiavini, wore at her 1953 wedding to Bruno Chiavini. Her sister, Sofia Chiavini, sang Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable” for the bride’s dance with her father. Her relatives had traveled from as far away as Gubbio, Italy, to attend the wedding. 

The couple met while working in Century City in Los Angeles. They are on safari in the Serengeti in Tanzania for their honeymoon, and there they plan to witness a wildebeest migration.

What is it really like to float out in the cosmos? What are the dangers associated with 139 days in space and 2,224 orbits around Earth? 

The Montauk Observatory is bringing the International Space Station experience to Guild Hall in East Hampton to answer those questions and more. Marine Col., retired, and NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik has two talks coming up about his time aboard the space station. 

Audiences will also get the chance to hear from his wife, Rebecca Bresnik, who is distinguished in her own right as associate chief counsel for international matters at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the lead attorney for the International Space Station project. 

The first lecture, “Space Exploration,” on Wednesday at 8 p.m., will give the audience the rare opportunity to learn about day-to-day space life from a real insider. The second lecture, “My Life as an Astronaut,” on Friday, June 29, is more family oriented and designed to give aspiring young astronauts a chance to meet and be inspired by a real-life astronaut and learn what the career is all about. Colonel Bresnik will share his experiences in space, answer questions, and provide an opportunity to take a photo or get an autograph.

The lectures will be held in the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall. Admission is free, but registration is required. Tickets can be obtained from Guild Hall’s Box office or by visiting guildhall.org. 

The observatory will also host a star party at 9 p.m. Friday, June 29, next to the Tennis Center on the campus of the Ross School on Goodfreind Drive in East Hampton.

This week, the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in nearby Southampton is hosting its fifth U.S. Open tournament. Founded in 1891, Shinnecock  was designed as a 12-hole course by Willie Davis. In 1892, play began on the course for the first 44 members. Two years later, the club became one of five charter members of the United States Golf Association, which established the U.S. Open tournament in 1895. That same year, the golf pro Willie Dunn expanded the course to 18 holes. In 1896, the U.S. Open came to Shinnecock Hills for the first time.

The 1897 membership handbook, pictured, contains the official club rules and bylaws, which give a sense of how the club was run when the U.S. Open first came to Shinnecock Hills. During this time, membership was limited to elected adults. Upon election, candidates paid an initiation fee of $200 and purchased at least one share of club stock for $100. As members, a couple would pay an annual fee of $40. Additional household members cost $15 per person. Members’ guests paid a mere dollar a day to play. A seasonal “subscription” cost $60. Membership was capped at 75 people by Article II of the 1897 constitution. However, the 1900 and 1909 constitutions show the membership limit was gradually increased.

Today, Shinnecock Hills takes pride in its legacy of offering women membership from the beginning. The 1897 club handbook contextualizes that history. The 1897 constitution explicitly permitted women and the bylaws provided for an appointed Ladies Committee. On the 1897 membership roster, Miss H.L. Parrish and Mrs. W.S. Hoyt appear and three women are listed “in memoriam.”

Currently, Shinnecock  is on its fourth course redesign, dating to 1931. The 1892 McKim, Mead, and White clubhouse still stands, ready to welcome this year’s U.S. Open visitors.

—

Andrea Meyer is a digital archivist for the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection.

“I teach people,” Jaki Jackson said at her house in Springs on Monday. Although seated in an armchair designed to encourage slouching, she held remarkably good posture. It’s the kind that reflexively causes a straightening of one’s own carriage.

“You teach people yoga?” this writer pressed on. “Any particular style?”

Her only answer was an intense stare, piercing, unflinching, and unsmiling. How absurd the world has become, her 87-year-old eyes seemed to say. Yoga, the most ancient of meditative practices designed to restore equilibrium to body, mind, and spirit and achieve a sense of wholeness, has ironically been fractured by a multibillion dollar industry into a cornucopia of varieties, like flavors of ice cream.

“I claim only one thing,” she said, finally breaking her bellicose stare. “I am a teacher.”

Indeed she is. Ms. Jackson has taught yoga in and around East Hampton for over 50 years, and, despite pushing 90, she still leads about 10 classes a week in her own style of yoga at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter and the senior citizens center on Springs-Fireplace Road. She also has multiple private clients. 

“I think I’ve allowed myself to go to the unknown. To make sense of life,” she said in response to being asked what keeps her going. 

Becoming a yoga instructor was not her goal. She had been an avid dancer growing up as an only child in New York City. She discovered yoga while working as a chemist after graduating from Fisk University. 

“Not biochemistry,” she was eager to point out. “I’m not particularly fond of people so I wasn’t interested in anything related to human beings. I studied physical chemistry,” she clarified, which is the application of the techniques and theories of physics to the study of chemical systems.

She tried her hand at teaching in schools. “But I couldn’t get along with the teachers,” she said. “And the principal just wanted to get the scores up. . . . I just couldn’t get along with the culture.” So, instead, she started a dance program for kids in a South Jamaica, Queens, housing project.

“Everything is about vibrations,” she said, animated and excited, “and we people are the most exquisite vibration on earth.”

In the early 1960s, she moved to Springs with her second husband, who was an artist, and her daughter from her first marriage. The family lived in a cowshed on Accabonac Road that had an outhouse and no heat. After the couple had a son, a friend suggested they move out of the cowshed and into her house on Neck Path with an indoor bathroom and heat, as the friends were moving away. Fifty-two years later, she still lives there. 

“Circumstances had to pin me down somewhere,” she said. 

For seven years, Ms. Jackson ran a nursery school in the house, which turned into a creative camp in the summers. But her seemingly endless curiosity about the mysteries of the world propelled her to take a computer-programming course at Stony Brook University, “to understand the brain,” she said. “Just by turning a switch off and on, I could get a computer to do what I wanted. That was so fascinating to me.”

Today, she admitted, she has put her machine away because it seems to have a brain of its own, apparently preprogrammed to sell her, and the rest of the world, things that no one needs.

“We’re losing our individual beauty to a collective group of people who are making money selling us things that promise to make our lives different.” 

She does not own a cellphone either. What she does possess is a vast collection of books, and she regularly refers to authors such as Eckhart Tolle and topics like Zen Buddhism and hypnosis. She has a collection of journals that fill two shelves of a bookcase. They are more like scrapbooks, with photos, news clippings, and writing. A yellowish piece of paper fell out of one book. It had “Yoga Routine” scribbled on top and the date — November 1984 — on the right-hand corner. “Took a class this morning with Dharma Mittra,” the note read. “He first allowed us to do sun salutations on our own. First round: easy. Second round: back stretch, twisted crescent added. Third: unsupported crescent.”

We expect yoga teachers to be supple, even at Ms. Jackson’s age — after all, isn’t lifelong flexibility the promise of the practice? She pointed to one of her favorite photographs, showing a rail-thin, gray-haired yogi in a handstand, his legs twisted like pipe cleaners.

Ms. Jackson said she goes through stages of standing on her head or doing other yoga exercises. “Today, I like to stretch in bed. Oh, I’m so strange,” she said laughing suddenly. “I’m not predictable.”

It is this suppleness of her mind, in the end, that appears to keep her strong and flexible, at an age when most have given up on any sort of quality of life. By twisting her body, she has found a panacea to soothe her mind. Through yoga, she seems to have found, if not total enlightenment, at least a glimmer of understanding.

“You don’t need to pledge allegiance to anything but the life that’s in you,” were the words she offered in parting.

A long-discussed plan to construct a fire department substation in Northwest Woods is moving forward. 

East Hampton Village contracts with the town to serve the Northwest fire and water supply protection districts. It has received approvals from permitting agencies including the Suffolk County Health Department and the town’s planning and architectural review boards, the village administrator, Becky Hansen, reported at a village board work session last Thursday. 

When completed, the substation, to be situated on Old Northwest Road, will house a fire truck and an ambulance, she said. 

The village will lease a property from the town, at an annual rate of $20, to construct the facility. The village will borrow money to build the facility, Ms. Hansen said, and the town will reimburse the village for the costs of borrowing related to construction. 

Ms. Hansen and Linda Riley, the village’s attorney, drafted a lease with the town attorney’s office that includes a provision that, should the town ever opt to void the agreement, the village would relinquish the building to the town, which would assume ownership and financial responsibility. 

Once a lease is finalized, the project can go out to bid and a contractor selected, Ms. Hansen said, “and we could be on our way.” 

Last Thursday’s work session began with a moment of silence for Ben and Bonnie Krupinski, their grandson, William Maerov, and Jon Dollard, their pilot, who died on June 2 when the small plane they were flying in crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Amagansett. “Hug that person that’s next to you, that’s a member of your family,” Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. told the gathering. “Life is very fragile, and this is an indication as to that being just the case.” 

Also at the meeting last Thursday, the East Hampton Village Board adopted a $22.3 million budget for the 2018-19 year. 

The budget has a spending increase of $713,000, or slightly more than 3 percent, over this year. The tax rate will rise by 2.5 percent, to $29.99 per $100 of assessed value. 

Real estate tax revenue is projected to rise by $396,000, to $13.287 million, and nontax revenue by $317,000, to $8.46 million. 

A public hearing drew no comment, either from the board or from those in attendance. Ms. Hansen said that only minimal changes were made to the budget from its initial, tentative iteration. Money appropriated to complete upgrades to the dispatching center, which village officials had deemed outdated and inadequate more than a year ago, account for the bulk of an additional $95,000 increase, she said. 

Police, fire departments and ambulance companies, bus drivers, Highway Department workers, and parks and recreation staff use the system. The upgrade is to include new dispatch and backup consoles and radios for emergency personnel as well as public works, code enforcement, and beach officials. “The village is well positioned to fully fund that project without having to incur any long-term borrowing toward it,” Ms. Hansen said. She estimated an early-fall completion date.

Another increase in the budget is for the planned demolition of a house at 8 Osborne Lane, on which a parking lot is to be created. The board had appropriated $30,000 in the present fiscal year’s budget for the demolition, but subsequently decided to combine the demolition with the parking lot’s construction so that a single contractor could be engaged. The board accepted a $170,000 bid for the project. The $30,000 will be encumbered into the 2018-19 fiscal year’s budget, as the project will not start until after Labor Day. 

The increases are offset, Ms. Hansen said, by an increase in Building Department revenue. The village projects $700,000, up from an original estimate of $600,000, in building permit fees. The village had budgeted $515,000 in such fees for the current fiscal year, but building permits have brought in more than $900,000, with seven weeks remaining in the fiscal year, Ms. Hansen said. 

The board voted to schedule an organizational meeting for July 3 at 11 a.m. It will not meet again until July 31, when it will close the fiscal year. Though the board typically holds a work session on the first Thursday of every month, it will not meet on Aug. 2.

East Hampton Village Hall, the historic Beecher-Hand House, needs renovation and repair, a consultant told the village board at a work session last Thursday. 

The Rev. Lyman Beecher bought the structure at 86 Main Street, which was built in the mid-18th century, in 1800. The village acquired it in 1994. Beecher, who co-founded the American Temperance Society and is credited with ending the practice of dueling in America, fathered 13 children, including the abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” 

Capt. George Hand made significant alterations to the building in 1839, when he inherited it after the death of his uncle, Abraham Hand, a sixth-generation descendant of one of the original proprietors of East Hampton.

“The building is in need of paint and some repairs,” Drew Bennett, a consultant to the village, recently told the board. “You have a couple of leaks that need to be addressed before they get worse. You’ve certainly gotten an awful lot of wear out of the paint.” 

Needed repairs include reshingling a large part of the south wall, correcting a leak in the flat section of the south roof, rebuilding the chimneys, replacing soffits under the south and northwest corner roof eaves, the likely replacement of three or four window drip caps as well as sill and/or cases at six windows, replacing two areas of fascia trim, reconstruction of the front door, and reglazing the building’s 42 windows. 

Mr. Bennett estimated the cost of all the work at $235,000. He recommended adding interior storm windows, which would be custom-made and add $50,000 to the cost, and board members agreed.

“Over all, the building is structurally fine,” Mr. Bennett said.

  The project could be funded through the capital reserve fund, Becky Hansen, the village administrator, said. 

“We’ve put this off for a number of years now,” Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said, adding that the building should be in a condition befitting the seat of village government.

As the South Fork enters the peak period for tick activity, a corresponding peak in the incidence of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses is likely. To help combat the scourge, which has spiked in recent years, according to a May 1 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one South Fork resident is spearheading a fund-raiser. 

Called East End Shop and Dine to End Lyme Disease, it is scheduled for June 30. Stores and restaurants interested in participating have been asked to pledge 10 percent of the day’s proceeds to the Global Lyme Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to conquering Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses through research, education, and awareness. 

Elizabeth Rasor, a teacher who lives in Sag Harbor, is one of the South Fork’s many residents afflicted with Lyme disease. More than three years after she was infected, she is still grappling with its effects. 

“It’s been so hard hit,” she said of the region. “Through my research and trying to find treatment, I found that the Global Lyme Alliance offers a lot of online support in terms of information and resources.” 

With Kinzey Fritz, who lives on the North Fork and in New York City and who also has Lyme disease, “we were trying to figure out how to raise money here. We connected through a network of people with Lyme disease and started talking about it. This is where we start,” she said, with the hope of expanding their efforts with another event in the fall. 

The Global Lyme Alliance holds gala events in Manhattan and Greenwich, Conn., where it is based, and has honored and received support from high-profile individuals including the singer Rob Thomas and his wife, Marisol, who has waged a 15-year battle with Lyme disease; Yolanda Hadid, a model and television personality, and her daughter, Bella Hadid, who is also a model; the fashion designer Joseph Abboud, and Ally Hilfiger, the daughter of the fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger and the author of “Bite Me: How Lyme Disease Stole My Childhood, Made Me Crazy, and Almost Killed Me.” 

With Shop and Dine to End Lyme Disease two weeks away, Ms. Rasor is securing commitments from stores and restaurants. Businesses on the North Fork have also been asked to join the effort. Those interested have been asked to send an email to [email protected] or visit the Global Lyme Alliance website at globallymealliance.org. 

“Anything is a really good start,” Ms. Rasor said of the first Shop and Dine event. “We can grow it from there, once the word gets out and people see that we’re a reputable organization that is going to do good work.”

A bloom of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, has been detected in Mill Pond in Water Mill. The toxic algae also persist in Lake Agawam in Southampton, Roth Pond in Stony Brook, and Lake Ronkonkoma. 

Sampling conducted by officials at the State University at Stony Brook confirmed the presence of cyanobacteria in Mill Pond, according to a statement issued Friday by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services. Officials have advised residents not to use, swim, or wade in the affected waters and to keep pets and children away from the area. 

Though blue-green algae are naturally present in lakes and streams in low numbers, they can become abundant, forming blooms in shades of green, blue green, yellow, brown, or red. They may produce floating scums on the surface of the water or may cause it to take on a paintlike appearance. 

Contact with waters that appear scummy or discolored should be avoided. If contact does occur, one should rinse with clean water immediately, and seek medical attention if nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, skin, eye, or throat irritation, or allergic reactions or breathing difficulties occur after contact. 

The Health Department’s office of ecology can be called at 631-852-5760 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., or emailed at [email protected], to report a suspected blue-green algae bloom at a body of water that contains a Suffolk County-permitted bathing beach. To report a suspected cyanobacteria bloom in a body of water that does not contain a permitted bathing beach, residents have been asked to contact the Division of Water at the State Department of Environmental Conservation at 518-402-8179 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. or via email at [email protected]. 

The D.E.C.’s notification page for harmful algal blooms, at dec.ny.gov features a comprehensive list of affected water bodies.