125 Years Ago - 1897
From The East Hampton Star, July 9
Great preparations are being made for the Village Improvement fair which will be held in Clinton Hall next Wednesday and Thursday afternoons and evenings. An endless variety of fancy and useful articles have been made for the decoration of the booths. These little shopping places will be novel in design, and will undoubtedly prove a big attraction.
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A heavy thunder shower passed over East Hampton on Friday afternoon last. Two bolts exploded directly over the village in quick succession, one striking a large ailanthus tree in front of George Osborne’s house, stripping the bark off from the top to the roots of the tree. Charles Mott was driving home at the time, and had just passed the tree when the flash came, and felt a slight touch of the electric current. Some three years ago Mr. Mott had a similar experience only a little way from the same spot.
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The two sirens, placed by the lighthouse board near Montauk light, were sounded on Monday for the first time. They are automatic fog horns run by two ten horse power engines. They can be heard 5 miles at sea.
100 Years Ago - 1922
From The East Hampton Star, July 7
Since publishing last week’s issue of the Star, when three automobile accidents were recorded, several more have happened, bringing the number up to nearly one a day.
Last Sunday night a Ford taxi owned by the F.M. Conklin Taxi Service and driven by Merrill Rampe collided with another Ford owned by a Sag Harbor party. The accident occurred on the Sag Harbor turnpike near Hardscrabble Farm at about 2 a.m. The story is that the Sag Harbor car had just turned out for another car coming east when it collided with Conklin’s taxi.
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Add a meeting of the guarantors of the 1922 East Hampton Community Chautauqua, held at the home of I.Y. Halsey, Main street, Wednesday evening, complete plans for the launching of the tickets selling campaign were made. Louis Vetault, jr., chairman of the ticket committee, has enlisted the aid of the Boy and Girl Scout organizations to assist in disposing of the tickets.
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Arrangements have finally been made for engagement in Southampton of William Faversham, who will personally appear, supported by an all-star cast, at the Crescent Theatre, on Monday evening, July 10. Heading their supporting company is Lawrence Grossmith, the English comedian who has scored many successes on both sides of the Atlantic.
The proceeds of the Faversham performance will be donated to the School for Professional Children in New York, a meritorious institution conducted by a group of philanthropic women under the leadership of Mrs. Franklin Robinson, a daughter of the late Bishop Greer.
75 Years Ago - 1947
From The East Hampton Star, July 10
Since Bela Lugosi created the role of “Dracula” in 1929, the two names have become synonymous. At the John Drew Theatre in Guild Hall for the week of July 21st, Mr. Lugosi is again starring in “Dracula,” the role that made him the greatest menace since Lon Chaney.
For some twenty years he has played all manner of character and romantic leads, including Shakespeare and Ibsen. Since creating the strange character of Bram Stoker’s famous novel he has been pursued by the character of Dracula as relentlessly as he has pursued his women victims in the play.
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The Saint Philomena’s Church Fair will be held on the afternoon and evening of July 16th on the Church grounds, opening at 3 o’clock.
Miss Marguerite Hoguet, Mrs. Henry Mann and Mrs. Joseph Ramee are co-chairman for the Fair.
There will be useful and attractive prizes, including a one hundred dollar bond, an electric vacuum broom sweeper, a bicycle, together with other prizes.
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Miss Sarah Diodati Gardiner will rebuild the Manor House at Gardiner’s Island, which was destroyed by fire last January 24. The plans have been made by the same architect who designed “The White House,” Miss Gardiner’s summer home in East Hampton. The new Manor House will be erected on a site somewhat farther back from the shore than the old one, and higher, for a wider view. It will be of brick, a square main house, with a wing at each side.
50 Years Ago - 1972
From The East Hampton Star, July 6
Strong men wept; Fourth of July weekend traffic on the South Fork was generally considered to have been “the worst ever.” The weather, which forced the postponement of the Devon Yacht Club fireworks show, and its rival performance from the next-door grounds of the George Plimpton home, from Monday until Tuesday evening, also drove many visitors from the beach and onto the highways and byways.
Not unexpectedly, East End police had their hands full.
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Stanley Arnold of Georgica Road, a candidate for the Vice Presidency, is featured in a New Yorker magazine article this week. Mr. Arnold, who also lives at 1020 Park Avenue, New York, is seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination to the nation’s second highest office.
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During the last two years a large aluminum sculpture in front of the Benson Gallery has been capturing attention on Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton. The artist, Bill Barrett, is showing his recent work in the gallery’s garden this month.
Barrett’s work, along with other sculpture exhibited here and at different East End locations this summer, reminds us of the extensive vocabulary of sculpture and how many ideas it has come to embrace in the six decades of this century that represent a tremendous broadening in materials, techniques, forms, and meaning.
25 Years Ago - 1997
From The East Hampton Star, July 10
When it rains at the airport, it really pours.
Just a week has passed since the town received a certificate of occupancy for the new terminal building at the East Hampton Town Airport, but the lawyer for one of its two fixed-base operators is threatening litigation even as the other one has started moving in. There may be a ray of sunshine, however, in the fact that plans for decorating the space with work by local artists seems to be going forward amicably.
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While many vacationers were stopped in bumper-to-bumper traffic last Thursday, Gov. George E. Pataki found himself stuck, so to speak, on the road to Havens Beach in Sag Harbor.
The Governor, who was to spend part of his Fourth of July weekend in Southampton, evidently decided to mix some business with pleasure by calling a press conference at the beach to announce that the state had set grants totaling $2.6 million for 52 water quality projects across the state, including $157,000 for Sag Harbor.
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East Hampton Town has won a reputation as a trailblazer in environmental preservation, and this week it took another pioneering step as officials discussed an ambitious plan to protect wildlife through far more stringent wetlands regulations.
“People complain about insects in the summer here, but think about what it would be like if we didn’t have the dragonflies, the damselflies, the diving beetles, the frogs and toads,” said Larry Penny, the town’s director of natural resources.
