125 Years Ago 1898
From The East Hampton Star, June 10
Summer sojourners will find that East Hampton has an excellent library containing about a thousand volumes of well-selected books. It is located in the rear of Clinton Hall building and is open on Saturday afternoons from three until four. The use of the books is free to the public, although persons so desiring may become subscribers to the library by paying two dollars per year.
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The Sea View House, the new hotel built at Amagansett, was opened on June 1st under the management of its owner W.M. Terry. The hotel is on high ground and commands an unobstructed view of the ocean for miles in either direction. There are thirty-one large and airy rooms in the house, twenty of which are sleeping rooms, all supplied with modern improvements.
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The morning mail and baggage-express train from New York is now making better time. Yesterday morning it arrived here on scheduled time and the morning papers were being read soon after eight o’clock. Quite a change since ‘96, when the first mail arrived in East Hampton at three o’clock in the afternoon.
100 Years Ago 1923
From The East Hampton Star, June 8
At the meeting of the village board Tuesday evening a communication from the Southampton Hospital was read requesting that East Hampton loan the hospital the ambulance while theirs is being repaired. The members of the board expressed themselves as being willing, provided the hospital would supply the village with a car with temporary equipment for emergency use.
A motion was made and carried that the Home Water Company be requested to repair the hydrant in front of Clinton Academy.
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That interest in the Star beauty contest to find out who is the most beautiful girl in East Hampton township is increasing is evident this week in the number of votes received at this office.
It has been decided to give 200 votes for every new subscription, 100 for each renewal and 10 for each coupon clipped from the Star. It is important that all who are working for their favorite understand these conditions.
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Over two hundred parents of school children viewed the unusual exhibition of school work, including drawings, experiments, notebooks, compositions, construction work, graphs, and other work, which was shown last Friday afternoon at the High School building. In the exhibition was work from all the grades and high school, including even the kindergarten. The wall space in every room in the building was literally covered with drawings and colored work, done by the students.
75 Years Ago 1948
From The East Hampton Star, June 10
Montauk is preparing for a big June 30 under the management of Karl Abbott; a fine dance orchestra is one of its greatest attractions. The Surf Club reopens June 26 with Roland McCann, who has been running a well-known inn in Pomfret, Conn., in charge. G.T. Molineri, who managed the Rendezvous Room of the Hotel Plaza, New York — which closed last week for the season — is in charge of the Montauk Yacht Club, opening today. The Montauk Downs Golf Club, with Walter Leddy as golf pro and manager, opened last weekend.
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The Ladies’ Village Improvement Society met in Guild Hall on Monday afternoon, Mrs. Russell Hopkinson presiding. The chief topics for discussion were the proposed purchase of the old Mulford place on Main Street by the Village, on June 15, and the annual Village Fair on July 30.
Mrs. Juan T. Trippe, chairman for the 1948 Fair, outlined some of the plans. Brides of East Hampton, 1648-1948, will take the place of the usual Fashion Show; from 1850 on, as many authentic wedding gowns as possible will be shown, including current brides wearing their own dresses.
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With two tickets in the field and two propositions before the taxpayers a large vote is seen in Tuesday’s village election. Mayor J.L. Banister, who has served fourteen years, is opposed for reelection by Willard B. Livingston, a former trustee; on the ticket with Banister, running for reelection, are Village Trustees Chester M. Cloud and Kenneth Hedges while on the ticket with Livingston, candidates for Trustee, are Edward H. Tillinghast and Dudley Roberts Jr.
50 Years Ago 1973
From The East Hampton Star, June 7
The Mayor of Sag Harbor, Harry Fick, said at a meeting of the Sag Harbor Village Board on Tuesday evening that, for two and a half years, he had been “withholding” information about the Village Police which would cause a “scandal” if it were revealed. He would reveal it, he said; but he declined to say anything precise until he had consulted a lawyer.
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The gasoline shortage, whether genuine or, as some maintain, a feint of the oil companies, is indeed affecting local dealers; but their reactions to it vary widely, from fatalism and renunciation to nonchalance, to judge by conversations with four of them.
“We’re up above what we were selling last year,” Warren Aydelotte, of Warren’s Service Station, East Hampton, a Chevron dealer, said last week. But, he complained, “the company told me I’ll be getting the same amount of gas I got last year. I’ll be closing Sundays and if need be I’ll close Saturday afternoons. There’s no point in staying open if the pumps are empty.”
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The East Hampton Town Board, following public hearings at its meeting last Friday morning, approved site-plan review powers for the Town Planning Board that would control most future commercial development in the Town; renewed a year-long lease with a flight training school at the Town Airport; and recommended that the State Department of Transportation establish a one-hour parking restriction on Amagansett’s Main Street during the daytime.
25 Years Ago 1998
From The East Hampton Star, June 11
What was already a busy and potentially exhausting week for East Hampton’s Volunteer Fire Department continued last Thursday, when a fire in the third story of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons on Woods Lane brought them out again. The fire apparently started in heating equipment.
Damage was limited to the turn-of-the-century portion of the building and did not extend to the modern sanctuary, which was designed by the late architect Norman Jaffe.
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With reluctance, the East Hampton Town Board granted a permit on Tuesday for Gardner (Rusty) Leaver to host a Labor Day weekend celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Rough Riders sojourn in Montauk.
At the same time, board members warned Mr. Leaver that it would be the last time he could run a large public event at his Deep Hollow Ranch, where, in recent summers, popular Back at the Ranch concerts have been held, attracting thousands.
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Saying the actor Robert De Niro’s proposed house addition would endanger the majestic oceanside bluff at his Old Montauk Highway property, the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals denied his request for variances and a natural resources permit Tuesday.
“The purpose of the setback is to protect the bluff,” said Jay Schneiderman, the board’s chairman and Montauk representative. The construction project would have required excavating approximately 20 truckloads from the bluff.
