Party Time in Amagansett For Library’s Centennial

Hugh King, East Hampton Town’s town crier; Dell Cullum, an Amagansett native, photographer, and naturalist, and Katherine C.H.E., a musician, will take part in a celebration of the Amagansett Free Library’s centennial on Saturday. The community has been invited to “put on their party hats.”

The celebration will get going at 11:30 a.m. when Mr. King delivers a lecture about Amagansett in 1916. Proclamations will be read by East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. at 1 p.m., while children have been invited to make the library’s craft program a party, with hats, cake, and cider. 

After a brief history of the library at 2 p.m., Mr. Cullum will discuss the hamlet’s natural history. At 4, Ms. C.H.E. will perform songs from 1916. 

In addition, just in time for the celebration, the centennial quilt started last year, for which residents and visiting authors sewed squares, has been completed and will be on display. Volunteers of all ages helped complete the project during stitching sessions on Feb. 7 and 14.

The library’s centennial is also being marked by an AmagansettLand podcast. Episodes, which can be heard at soundcloud.com/kara-westerman-amagansettland-podcast, include recordings of talks by authors at the library and an account by Joanne Pilgrim, an East Hampton Star associate editor, of her trip to Lesbos in Greece to help refugees arriving from war-torn Middle Eastern countries.

The celebration will continue next month, as well. The Amagansett Chamber of Commerce has chosen the library to be the grand marshal of the eighth annual Am O’Gansett Parade, which is set to step off on March 12 at 12:01 p.m. and said to be the shortest parade in the world.

Cynthia Young, the library’s director, said last week that the celebration is also likely to continue into the year. A family day in the summer, which would include food and games popular a century ago, is under consideration.