125 Years Ago 1896
From The East Hampton Star, December 25
The members of the old East Hampton social club are invited to attend a dance to be given in Clinton hall on Thursday evening next — New Year's Eve. Van Houten's orchestra will furnish music, and the usual good time which characterizes these social gatherings of our young people is promised.
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Mr. and Mrs. J. Arter Gould arrived home from their wedding trip on Tuesday evening. They were greeted with a hearty reception by about fifty serenaders all armed to the teeth. A generous supply of ice cream and cake satisfied the cravings of the mob and it soon departed peacefully.
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Ticket Agent Topping went to Sag Harbor Wednesday afternoon on the 2:28 train, expecting to return on the "Cape Horn" train at 4:45. The snow blockade gave him ample time to see all the sites at Sag Harbor, and he did not get home until Thursday.
100 Years Ago 1921
From The East Hampton Star, December 23
Whale off! Whale off! Thar she blows! are the crys that were heard from Southampton to Amagansett Tuesday and Wednesday, but these crys seemed to arouse little excitement among the villagers. Capt. "Evie" Edwards, son of the late Capt. "Josh" Edwards, a famous old whaler, was heard to remark, "I wonder what the matter is. Am I growing old or are the times changing?" Capt. Edwards evidently referred to the lack of interest in what in years back has been one of the most exciting and dangerous sports known on the sea, that of whale hunting. Early Tuesday morning word was received from the Coast Guard station at Southampton that a right whale was feeding about a quarter of a mile back of the surf in front of the station.
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Jencie Callaway-John, of Amagansett and New York City, gave a brilliant and delightful song recital at Aeolian Hall last week Friday evening to a very large audience; thereby fully demonstrating her capabilities as an artistic interpreter of Italian, French, German and English composers.
John Doane, at the piano, played with considerable brilliancy and seemed at all times in sympathetic touch with the soloist.
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The play entitled "Bethlehem," by Laurence Housman, portraying the Holy Nativity, was given in the Presbyterian church last Sunday evening under the auspices of the Neighborhood Association to a house that filled every seat and that requisitioned extra benches for the overflow.
A stage had been erected, and the first scene very effectively depicted the pastoral country where the shepherds were watching their flocks, and the second scene the manger at Bethlehem.
75 Years Ago 1946
From The East Hampton Star, December 26
A Greenport beam-trailer, the 110-foot Liberty II, a converted submarine chaser, went on the rocks on the southeast side of Gardiner's Island, near Tobacco Lot Point, early Saturday morning and is probably a total loss. The crew of six went ashore in a dory in the night, and some hours later Kenneth Edwards and Richard Edwards went over and brought them off. The owner is Sidney Smith of Greenport. The boat, which had just been thoroughly rebuilt, with new engines and gear, was not insured; it was only its second trip out. It is said to have cost between thirty-five and forty thousand dollars.
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In the interest of the health of the patient and the community, Southampton Hospital has now begun its program of supplying chest X-rays of all admissions over 15 years of age. The X-ray will be given without charge to the patient and the cost of the service will be jointly shared by Southampton Hospital Association and the Suffolk County Tuberculosis and Public Health Association.
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The Navy Department's offer to the town of East Hampton that the Navy turn over to the township the wartime built Navy seaplane base at Rod's Valley, Montauk, has been turned down following a meeting of the town board last week, according to Supervisor Herbert L. Mulford, Jr. On Dec. 12 the board met with representatives of the Atlantic Seaboard Corporation, who presented a proposition that if the town would take over the seaplane base the corporation would lease it and operate the base for commercial traffic.
50 Years Ago 1971
From The East Hampton Star, December 23
Spectators at a public hearing last Friday on an application from a Lake Montauk marina to dredge a boat basin were cautioned by the East Hampton Town Board not to discuss pollution of the lake. They did anyway. And, in the process, the Board denied requests by several speakers to declare a moratorium on further marina construction at Lake Montauk until the pollution problem was solved.
There are several marinas on the Lake which have captured the interest of the Concerned Citizens of Montauk. One, Captain's Marina, is full-fledged, while the others — Star Island Villas and Marina and Gone Fishing Marina, Inc. — are not yet fully established.
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Christmas will be celebrated in a variety of ways in the East End's Christian Churches, with almost all scheduling special services for the holidays.
Holiday masses have been scheduled in the Catholic Churches. At St. Therese of Lisieux Church in Montauk, the Rev. Raymond E. Tortora will celebrate a midnight mass on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, there will be masses at 9 a.m. and at 10:15 a.m., and again on Sunday, Dec. 26, there will be masses at these hours.
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The question of whether a limited retail business use should be permitted in the historic Lyman Beecher house has been laid to rest, its owner said this week.
George Auslander, chairman of the board of Valley National Bank, announced that he planned to accept an offer to buy the 18th century home in East Hampton, with the provision that it be used as a residence only. He declined to identify the prospective buyer or to disclose the selling price.
25 Years Ago 1996
From The East Hampton Star, December 26
The East Hampton Town Board wrapped up its holiday shopping on Friday by borrowing more than $2.6 million for next year's capital projects.
Among them are the acquisition of wetlands, a reconstructed pier at the head of Three Mile Harbor, and a launching ramp at Lazy Point, Amagansett, trucks and cars for several town officials, vans for the senior citizens transportation program, and design costs for a new police headquarters.
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Marine heads will have to be sealed on all boats in Montauk Harbor if East Hampton Town is successful at establishing a Federally sanctioned no-discharge zone there.
Town Councilwoman Nancy McCaffrey and Larry Penny, director of natural resources, agreed they would discuss Federal designation during the Town Board's first work session of the new year, Jan. 7.
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Hard to imagine, but white sharks, the fearsome nemesis of Peter Benchley's fictional seaside town of Amity, may be made subject to the catch-and-release rules of sportfishing, and hunted only by participating in a Federal tagging program.
Just how one is supposed to release Carcharodon carcharias is not discussed in the no-kill policy being contemplated by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
