125 Years Ago - 1897
From The East Hampton Star, August 20
Mrs. Charles H. Hobart, Miss Anna M. Sherrill, and Frank Tillinghast have added their names to the subscription list to the East Hampton Free Library. Mrs. J.A. Tyler has presented the Library with the Library of American Literature, in eleven volumes.
—
One summer resident while riding along on the sidewalk at Pantigo was rudely ordered into the road. He went home and immediately made arrangements to leave town the next day. That’s the way to boom East Hampton.
—
F.S. Philips’ house at Georgica is rapidly nearing completion. The masons are about through with the walls and ceilings. Builder Eldredge is now building for Mr. Philips a stable which, it is said, will be the handsomest one in town.
100 Years Ago - 1922
From The East Hampton Star, August 18
Major General Harry C. Hale of the 2nd Corps Area of Long Island, Tuesday made the first inspection of the several military encampments at Montauk. The general and his party reached Montauk Monday night and were met by a party of army and guard officers. Among them were Colonel Elmore Austin, commanding the 52nd Field Artillery Brigade, Colonel Robert W. Marshall, commanding the 105th Field Artillery, and Lieut. Colonel Frank A. Spencer of the Brooklyn Battalion.
—
East Hampton will have its first carnival here next week. It is coming direct from Freeport to this village having recently closed an engagement at Patchogue. The carnival will be given under the direction and for the benefit of the Edwin C. Halsey Post, No. 700, American Legion. The boys had some difficulty in securing a location, first trying to obtain the use of the playground, but this was refused. It was finally decided to hold the carnival on the Maidstone Park property located near the freight station, between Buell and Newtown lanes.
—
The East Hampton Boys’ Club will hold a swimming meet at the Devon Yacht Club tomorrow morning, August 19, at 10:30 o’clock. Much enthusiasm is being shown by the members in this annual event and a large list of entries is practically assured.
One of the interesting features of the event will be the life saving corps test, lessons in which the members have received three times a week by Professor Searfoss and his able assistants.
75 Years Ago - 1947
From The East Hampton Star, August 21
The increasing habit of many careless automobilists of throwing newspapers, candy wrappers, fruit cores and other rubbish on the roadsides of Long Island parkways and highways as they return to the City from beaches and country tours was severely criticized this week by Mrs. Roland C. Bergh of Lawrence, Executive Vice Chairman of the Roadside Committee of the Long Island Association.
—
On August 15, when India received her independence, the day began in New York with impressive flag-raising ceremonies on board the Indian S.S. “Jalaketu,” the first ship to sail from the United States flying the Indian National flag. This was the real beginning of the Indian Merchant Marine, and opened a round of celebrations by Indians in various parts of New York City during that day and evening. Neil K. Kennedy of New York and East Hampton, representative of the Government of India with the new Indian Embassy, had been among those present at a luncheon on board the ship last Thursday, and was present at the flag-raising.
—
Roland Pertwee’s murder play in a Brighton, England, setting, “Pink String and Sealing Wax,” made its American debut in East Hampton’s summer theater this week. Well written and well acted, with a current of mild humor that is not lost in the ugly pathos of a murder, the play looks like something that New York audiences may see next winter.
50 Years Ago - 1972
From The East Hampton Star, August 17
Montauk
Captain Paul Sundberg of the Montauk, and Captain Bob Stewart of the Four Bits, between them rescued five persons whose fishing boat had swamped early on the morning of Aug. 5.
The Montauk and the Four Bits were fortunately on the scene at the time of the accident, which happened just north of the breakwater at the entrance to Lake Montauk. Captain Sundberg called Frank Tuma at Marine Basin, by ship-to-shore phone, to notify the Coast Guard of the incident. By the time the Coast Guard arrived, all five fishermen were safely aboard the two boats.
—
A recent survey of the East Hampton Fire Department by a private firm has recommended, among other things, that the Village Board hire a full-time, salaried Chief; purchase new equipment estimated to cost more than $100,000; adopt a fire prevention code; and work with the Suffolk County Water Authority to boost what the report called “a serious lack of water available for firefighting.”
—
Some guys have all the luck. Like Audley Bell, a tall, willowy young man from Jamaica, West Indies, who drew Aussie champ John Gardner, of all people, in the first round of the United States Lawn Tennis Association tournament at the Meadow Club Monday.
Gardner is seeded first, foreign. Bell is unseeded, foreign. Had he not had the misfortune to run up against John, Audley might have battered his way to the second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth round of this annual Southampton do. I mean he’s pretty good. John Gardner is very good and not bad looking, either, girls, sort of a young Charlton Heston.
25 Years Ago - 1997
From The East Hampton Star, August 21
An annual bicycle “Tour of the Hamptons” stretched like a slow-moving snake along roadsides from Southampton to Montauk on Sunday. While the scenery might have pleased the 1,000 participating cyclists, the organizers at the Massapequa Park Bicycle Club had failed to alert East Hampton Town authorities and apparently misrepresented their numbers to Southampton Town officials. The resultant traffic snarls had motorists and police hopping mad.
—
The perennial conflict between beachgoers and beach drivers, which crops up like eel grass in almost every election and may do so again in November’s, had the East Hampton Town Trustees and several residents of Amagansett east at odds during a Trustees meeting on Aug. 12.
Five neighbors who live near Napeague Lane and frequent the town beach there attended the meeting to ask the Trustees’ help in solving what they said could be a dangerous confluence of four-wheelers and sun-worshipers.
Robert Higgins said the population of the area had doubled in the last five years, and so has the number of cars on the sand. He and others urged that sections of the beach be closed to vehicles.
—
A team from the Environmental Protection Agency came to Sag Harbor on Monday to unveil the Government’s clean-up plan for the Rowe Industries Superfund site and found itself under a blistering attack from residents.
The E.P.A. officials agreed with a request by Scott Strough, chairman of the Southampton Town Trustees, to reconvene a task force of local officials that last met to discuss the plan in the early 1990s, but they offered no promises the clean-up effort, slated to begin next month, would be widened.
