125 Years Ago, 1897
From The East Hampton Star, June 18
The “cannon ball” express arriving at East Hampton at 5:45 p.m. makes the run from Long Island City to this place, including fifteen stops, in two hours and forty-five minutes. Allowing three minutes for each stop, the run of 111 miles is made in 120 minutes actual running time. Considerable of the distance is covered at the rate of a mile a minute.
—
Children’s Day was observed in the Presbyterian church on Sunday morning last. The platform was very prettily decorated with flowers, and the exercises were highly pleasing to the large congregation present. The Rev. Mr. Riddle, of Havre de Grace, Md., was present, and made an interesting address to the children.
—
A memorial day has been instituted by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the day was celebrated in East Hampton last Sunday by the Hampton lodge, which had the graves of all deceased brothers decorated. The work was done by a committee appointed by the lodge, and the decoration consisted of floral pieces designed after the three links and a memorial flag.
100 Years Ago, 1922
From The East Hampton Star, June 16
Plans for the entertainment of residents of East Hampton town are still in the making. This week the executive committee of Edwin C. Halsey Post, No. 700, met with the executives of several of the local civic organizations and discussed plans for celebrating the Fourth of July. It was finally decided to omit the usual parade in the afternoon, as there seemed to be a lack of interest in this part of the day’s program.
—
The Annual Union Meeting of the Improved Order of Red Men was held in the Wigwam of the Shagwong Tribe, No. 486, at Odd Fellows’ hall, last Friday night. Members from all tribes in Suffolk County attended the meeting. The evening program started with a street parade headed by a twelve piece band, the line of march being from Odd Fellows’ hall up Main street, around the Liberty pole and return. District Deputy G.S. Ulysses S. Adams of Shagwong Tribe introduced the Great Sachem, who in turn gave a short address from the steps of the hall.
—
Devon Yacht Club began its 1922 season by a formal opening yesterday. Many of the members who are in town motored down to the club over the Sunrise Trail and Abraham’s Path, both of which were never in better condition. Abraham’s Landing road was resurfaced this spring and recently covered with a thick coating of road oil and sand. In several places where the road was narrow and dangerous to traffic it has been widened, making a great improvement.
75 Years Ago, 1947
From The East Hampton Star, June 19
Juan T. Trippe, president of Pan-American Airways, left on Tuesday afternoon on the air line’s giant clipper plane, The America, when it took off from La Guardia Field on the first leg of its around-the-world flight to start the airline’s globe-girdling passenger service. The huge ship, which expects to cover 21,436 miles in 93 flying hours, carried a party of publishers and editors. Ceremonies attended by 2,000 persons preceded the take-off.
—
The annual meeting of the East Hampton Historical Society was held at Clinton Academy, Saturday, June 7th at 3 o’clock. H. Morgan Topping and N.N. Tiffany were re-elected trustees.
The 25th anniversary of the organization was celebrated by a Colonial Tea Party in the garden Sept. 7, 1946. A beautiful day, the antique furniture, an old tea service and the colorful Colonial costumes added much to the occasion. Sufficient funds were contributed for minor repairs and exterior painting.
—
The East Hampton High School’s graduation class this year has 45 members. The baccalaureate sermon was given on Sunday evening in the Presbyterian Church, by Rev. Francis Kinsler. The Senior Ball will take place tomorrow evening in the High School Auditorium. Commencement exercises will be held on Sunday afternoon in Edwards’ Theater, at five o’clock.
50 Years Ago, 1972
From The East Hampton Star, June 15
Polling places in East Hampton Town will be open from noon to 9 p.m. next Tuesday, June 20, for a Primary Day which may well prove to have been more exciting in the planning than in the conclusion.
Registered Democrats, who are well in the minority here, ought to be in and out of the voting booth in about 30 seconds flat. Registered Republicans, as of this writing, will encounter nothing but blanks on Rows A and B of the ballot; there are at present no challenges to Republican candidates for office in the First Congressional District.
—
It has been proposed that the County acquire the Deep Hollow Ranch, or Third House, in Montauk, and 30 acres around it, in 1973 for $400,000; and Legislator R. Thomas Strong said Monday that this amount, “an estimate,” has been entered in the Legislature’s capital budget.
—
I.F. Stone, whose long memory and acerbity have made him one of the nation’s most respected political analysts, came into the soft-edged summer living room of the Frank Stantons Saturday evening. Guests at a cocktail benefit for Senator George McGovern’s campaign for the Presidency were devouring an elegant pate and bits of quiche.
Mr. Stone proceeded to lay his thoughts on the line. “It’s very difficult in East Hampton, with so many echoes of a vanishing America, to speak of the turmoil in our world. But I do not think you in this room are those who have fled to the suburbs and abdicated their responsibilities,” he said.
25 Years Ago, 1997
From The East Hampton Star, June 19
The “money fish” is what baymen once called striped bass because it was the one plentiful enough and valuable enough to pay the bills. But the money fish dried up, as contamination and regulation put bass beyond the reach of commercial fishermen for more than a decade.
In the past few years, the population of bass, now considered safe to eat by the state, has been exploding all along the East Coast. And while sport fishermen are taking advantage of the bounty, the more stringent regulations on the commercial catch have not been eased.
—
The trustees of the Ross School in East Hampton believe they have hit upon such a successful formula for education that they are planning to establish an institute where scholars from all over the world might develop and share, via computer, teaching methods and curriculum.
The concept for a Ross Institute, while several years from attainment, is the South Fork’s most ambitious plan for education since Southampton College was created.
—
Ask five insiders what’s happening with the South Fork’s commercial real estate market these days and four of them will start off by recalling last year’s sale of the former Whitman Gallery building on East Hampton’s Main Street. For many, that sale seems to typify the current situation.
The gallery’s owners, the heirs of the late Grace V. Rose, were one of the few local families who emerged from the boom years of the 1980s still holding the deeds to commercial properties acquired by their parents or grandparents.
