125 Years Ago 1898
From The East Hampton Star, August 19
Station agents Smith and Phillips are feeling the effects of the increase of business from the camp at Montauk. Their services are required at the station day and night, and their closing-up hour is from eleven at night to two or three o’clock in the morning.
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The largest public sale of real estate that has taken place in East Hampton in many years will occur on September 10, when forty-one cottage sites will be sold at auction. The property belongs to the estate of Dan Talmage’s sons and will be sold by the order of Joseph Gillet, Esq., assignee, under the direction of the Supreme Court. The land is located on the ocean, Cottage and Lee avenue, Georgica and Apaquogue highway and Lily Pond Lane. The sale will take place on the premises.
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Van Scoy, Dayton & Stratton leased the large tract of land owned by A.M. Hoyt, at Montauk, intending to open a store there. On Wednesday carpenters went there with lumber, and loads of goods were taken there. While the lumber was being delivered on the grounds General Young appeared and informed the men that he should use the land himself and that no building could be erected there.
100 Years Ago 1923
From The East Hampton Star, August 17
A fire which might have wiped out the entire business section of East Hampton, had the conditions been right, started Tuesday morning in the loft above the bicycle repair shop of Erastus J. Dominy on Newtown lane. It is thought that the fire started from a piece of burning paper flying out of the chimney and landing on the dry shingles. A hole about three feet in diameter was burned through the roof before the fire was extinguished.
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The annual Bridgehampton carnival will be held at Bridgehampton next week, from August 21-25 inclusive, five days. The proceeds this year will be for the Community House. Among the many attractions are special children’s attractions Wednesday afternoon, horse show Saturday afternoon, open air dancing afternoon and evening, fireworks display, modern merry-go-round and Ferris wheel.
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East Hampton men helped to sail the early Sag Harbor whaleships. These ships brought prosperity to a community, one-third of which paid taxes to East Hampton town. East Hampton masters commanded many ships.
A table of arrivals and value of catch of whale ships at the East Hampton pier grant, 1785-1812 inclusive, shows $600,000 brought in by the voyages of that time. Outfits were not costly and the community supplied most everything needed for the ships.
75 Years Ago 1948
From The East Hampton Star, August 19
Early last spring a group of East Hampton youngsters were outfitted in clothes from Lord and Taylor by photographer James Abbey, Jr., who has a home at Montauk. Using local outdoor backgrounds, Mr. Abbey snapped these young girls as they performed in typical “Pupil’s Choice” manner, and results appear in the August issue of Good Housekeeping.
Four of the pictures are in color.
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Sag Harbor’s role in 300 years of East Hampton history was observed last Saturday in a program that featured a waterfront fair of the Ladies Village Improvement Society and visits to historic old homes that were opened under the sponsorship of the Old Sagg-Harbour Committee.
It was a gala day in the old whaling port, and perfect weather combined with an attractive program drew hundreds of visitors from Southold, Oyster Bay, Freeport, the Hamptons, and many other Long Island communities.
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Francis Kiernan and Samuel Meddaugh, directors of the East Hampton Boys Club, announced this week that awards for excellence in art, swimming and track, as well as for improvement and sportsmanship are to be given at the final meeting of the club on Saturday, August 28th. Parents and friends have been invited. There will also be at 10:00 a.m. on the playground an exhibit of boys’ and girls’ handcrafts and a short program of races, games and dances and a kite flying contest.
50 Years Ago 1973
From The East Hampton Star, August 16
A series of public confrontations between alarmed residents of the North Fork and officials of the Long Island Lighting Company, over LILCO’s plans to construct two nuclear power plants at Shoreham and Jamesport, has been proceeding this summer, with more meetings ahead in the months to come.
The proposed plant at Jamesport, to be built on a 500-acre site fronting Long Island Sound, would be about 10 miles due north of Tiana Beach, about 12 miles northwest of Sag Harbor, and about 19 miles from the heart of East Hampton Village.
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“I think the general feeling was that any goddam bypass is going to be a detriment to the community,” said Howard Barry, chairman of the East End Council of Organizations, when asked for an assessment of an unannounced meeting held at Town Hall last Friday between representatives of 11 local organizations, East Hampton Town Supervisor Eugene E Lester Jr., and a senior civil engineer at the New York State Transportation Department.
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“I haven’t had too much of a problem in East Hampton on a bad search,” Town Justice Sheppard Frood said last week.
“They know just what they can get away with,” suggested one shaggy youth, who complained that a police officer, with a flashlight, had spent five minutes pretending to inspect his parking sticker while actually peering inside his car, looking unsuccessfully for marijuana.
Town police Chief John Doyle reported yesterday that his department had “a whole flock of books” about lawful procedures for searches and seizures.
But, one local lawyer suggested, “if they know the laws, they can always change their stories to fit.”
25 Years Ago 1998
From The East Hampton Star, August 20
Dr. John J. Ferry Jr. resigned on Saturday as Southampton Hospital’s president and chief executive officer, not long after disclosing to his board that the hospital’s financial losses over a two-year period may amount to $7 million or more.
An independent auditor’s long-awaited review of the books is expected by the end of September, but Dr. Ferry said he had concluded that the board of directors would be “better served at this time by someone else leading the organization.”
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Deer were blamed for the deaths on Saturday of two local residents, each in a separate incident on an East Hampton road, in what Town Police Detective Lt. Edward V. Ecker Jr. called “tragic accidents.”
Obituaries for 62-year-old Frederick H. Knubel, a part-time resident of Springs, and Nube Castro, also of Springs, appear on page two.
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Passengers on the often-maligned Long Island Rail Road who have been promised brand-new double-decker coaches pulled by modern locomotives will have to put up with grimy old cars and worn-out engines for another year.
As part of a $500 million capital improvement program that included remodeling stations and platforms, the L.I.R.R. is buying 134 new coaches and 46 locomotives to replace aging diesel equipment that first came on line in 1955 — when President Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House and the Dodgers were in Brooklyn.
