125 Years Ago - 1897
From The East Hampton Star, September 17
George A. Eldredge has the contract to build a new cottage for Mrs. Nesbit on Dunemere lane. This thoroughfare, which was partially opened only a few years ago, and widened and extended this summer, is fast becoming one of the cottage streets of the Village. It already has four summer residences.
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We are now informed upon reliable authority that a hotel is to be built at Montauk in the near future. New roads are being built to and about the proposed site for the hotel, and we are told that a macadamized road will be laid between it and the station.
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Rev. Dr. Talmage resumed active work at his church in Washington, on Sunday last. He goes to Washington again tomorrow to be in his pulpit on Sunday, but will return to East Hampton for a few days next week, after which he will take his family to the Capitol City for the winter.
100 Years Ago - 1922
From The East Hampton Star, September 15
School started in the East Hampton schools Monday, September 11. We say schools because now, you must remember, we have classes in four separate buildings, namely, the brick school house kindergarten rooms, the Masonic Temple, and the Session House and M.E. Church hall. Next year the pupils in all probability will have the pleasure of attending the new school house which will be finished when the school opens in the fall.
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The competition between the amateur dahlia growers of this section of Long Island was exceptionally keen at the annual dahlia show which was held Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons and evenings at Clinton Academy under the auspices of the East Hampton Garden Club. The old academy proved to be an ideal location for the exhibition.
There were three classes, and in each class there were many exhibits. The first class was for the best specimen of pink, lavender, or buff dahlia. The second class was for the best ten varieties of dahlias, and the third for the best collection of twenty-four varieties.
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Another short stretch of concrete highway, about a half mile in length, will soon be built in East Hampton town, providing a contractor can be located to build the road with the money allotted for this purpose, about $18,000.
The road referred to is a continuation of the Amagansett concrete road on Napeague Beach. At the regular monthly meeting of the town board, held Saturday at Clerk Ketcham’s office, N.N. Tiffany, C.E., submitted to the board a profile and specifications of the proposed highway.
75 Years Ago - 1947
From The East Hampton Star, September 18
East Hampton will have reached the 300th anniversary of its founding in the spring of 1948, according to historical records recently studied by the Long Island Association.
For several decades, local residents have been under the impression that East Hampton was founded in 1649, but the Long Island Association’s Committee on History has discovered the origin of the error. In 1813, when the first New York State Gazetteer was published, Editor H.G. Spafford incorrectly printed 1649 as the year of East Hampton’s founding.
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The annual Montauk fishing tournament had a happy climax Saturday night when prizes were awarded to the season winners at the annual dinner at the Montauk Yacht Club. The master of ceremonies was Captain Frank Tuma, Sr. Among those who spoke at the dinner were Conservation Commissioner Perry B. Duryea, John Craft, manager of the Montauk Beach Co., Major General Norman Kirk, and others. About one hundred and fifty attended the dinner.
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Sir Angus Fletcher, British Consul General at Buffalo, N.Y., former head of the British Library of Information in New York, and summer resident who owns a home at Fire Place on Gardiner’s Bay, will speak at Guild Hall on Wednesday evening, October 1, at 8:15, on the United Nations and his experiences as chairman of his Housing Commission. Official United Nations films will be shown, showing various activities of that body and the selection of its final site.
50 Years Ago - 1972
From The East Hampton Star, September 14
On the Tuesday night after Labor Day at 10 o’clock you could have shot off a cannon at the flag pole north on Main Street and hit nothing but the grist mill at the other end of town, it was that quiet.
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Tsuya Matsuki has just returned to Amagansett to live year-round, and here is a quote from the book “Amagansett Lore and Legend” published in 1948 by the Amagansett Village Improvement Society:
“The peacefulness of Amagansett and the beauty of its dunes had attracted many painters, writers and musicians, some professional, others simply interested in one or another of the arts. A number of these professional people are now year-round residents.”
Further on in the same paragraph: “It was only a couple of years ago that the old Miankoma Hall was sold, renovated and turned into a studio which bids fair to become the center of the musical life of the village.”
Both quotes are just as true in ‘72 as in ‘48, the second one precisely so because Miss Matsuki is the person referred to, who “renovated” Miankoma Hall and “turned it into a studio.” And it was “the center of musical life in the village” until Miss Matsuki’s professional pursuits (she’s a pianist and teacher) took her elsewhere.
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Although it appears that the County Health Department is on the verge of giving Grey Gardens in East Hampton, the focus of international attention for nearly a year, a clean bill of health, its owners remain wary.
“You don’t think I’ll ever rest easy any more, do you?” said Miss Edith Bouvier Beale, 54, this week.
25 Years Ago - 1997
From The East Hampton Star, September 18
A push to further improve the recently rebuilt East Hampton Town Airport has catapulted the $4.5-million project back into the political arena.
In a situation reminiscent of the heated and prolonged battle over the airport’s expansion that began in 1989, town officials, political candidates, airport users, and those who live under its flight paths are once again choosing sides.
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The Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist who yesterday was still waiting to hear whether he would face Manhattan Borough President Ruth W. Messinger in a runoff for the Democratic slot in the New York City mayoral campaign, is scheduled to preach the sermon at the First Baptist Church in Bridgehampton on Sunday.
The 11 a.m. service is part of a 14th-anniversary celebration for the church’s minister, the Rev. Henry Faison Jr.
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Mention kayaking within earshot of people who have experienced it and you’ll see a certain look come over their faces, subtle changes in posture. Their brows unfurrow, their voices grow calm, and their eyes seem to hold a little of the same light that glints off the water when the sun’s low in the sky and the shadows are long across the kayak’s bow.
“It isn’t a sport thing. It’s an escape,” Jay Damuck said, extolling the virtues of kayaking before a morning paddle in the waters off Shelter Island recently.
