125 Years Ago 1898
From The East Hampton Star, August 26
Henry Hornbeck, late of Steinway & Sons, an expert piano tuner, has taken permanent residence in Sag Harbor, and makes occasional trips to East Hampton to tune pianos upon order. We heartily recommend Mr. Hornbeck to all who may need his services, as he is a master of his profession and an honorable young man.
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Steamer Shinnecock will make her last Sunday night trip for the season, next Sunday, August 28, and her last Monday morning excursion from New York next Monday, August 29. She will make her last one o’clock Saturday afternoon trip on September 3d. Steamer Montauk will leave Sag Harbor for New York on Sunday, September 4th at 8 p.m., and will leave New York on Monday, September 5th (Labor Day), at the usual time.
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Efforts are being made to organize a village improvement society in Bridge Hampton, and on Thursday evening next a public meeting will be held there for the purpose of arousing enthusiasm for the cause. Mrs. E.H. Dayton, of the East Hampton village improvement society, will be one of the speakers.
100 Years Ago 1923
From The East Hampton Star, August 24
A quota of $1,000 has been set by the officers of the East Hampton Neighborhood Association and committees appointed by Raymond A. Smith, president of the Association, as the amount they hope to raise from the special Labor Day events to be held on the playground, Monday afternoon, September 3.
The Association is greatly in need of funds to carry on its work and maintain the grounds in the splendid condition they have been this summer. The cost of hiring a man to care for the grounds alone amounts to about $800 a year.
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Members of the Garden Club of East Hampton and other home gardeners who make a specialty of raising dahlias are looking forward with interest to the annual dahlia show which will be held at Clinton Academy, East Hampton, Tuesday, September 11, from 3 until 10 p.m.
The weather this year has not been exceptionally good for raising prize blooms but a large exhibit in the many classes is almost assured.
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A giant carnival will open Labor Day night, Monday, September 3, and continue until Saturday night, on the Maidstone Park property near the freight station. This carnival will be given by and for the benefit of the Masonic Club of East Hampton.
One of the big features will be dancing every evening on a specially built platform. Mazzeo’s orchestra will be in attendance evenings and furnish the music.
75 Years Ago 1948
From The East Hampton Star, August 26
Last Friday the staff of Lado Del Mare News, the weekly newspaper put out by the students of the Carlson School here, sponsored a fair on the school grounds, to raise money to buy a mimeograph machine.
Although the fair was not widely advertised, a large group of friends and parents visited the gaily decorated grounds and enthusiastically supported the numerous booths. These consisted of games of chance and skill, balloons, novelties and refreshments. The cork dolls were a great success. Olaf Danielson’s voting booth drew large crowds. Twinkie, “just a little girl,” was voted the prettiest girl in the school, receiving a few hundred votes more than any of the other girls.
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The August 16 issue of the Social Spectator has a long write-up on East Hampton which contains a very vivid account of the Ladies’ Village Improvement Fair, and is fully illustrated with pictures of the Pageant of Brides. Not only are all the brides pictured, but also East Hampton’s ten best dressed women and Mrs. Juan Trippe, Fair Chairman, Mrs. Thomas Nichols, chairman of the Wheel of Chance, Mrs. Foster Milliken, chairman of Tombola, and Mrs. E.E. Anderson, who had charge of the 300th anniversary souvenir program.
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The second group of rheumatic cardiac children who have spent the month of August in East Hampton is leaving this week for New York City. This group of nine children, who have been boarded in foster homes through the generosity of many East Hampton residents, are grateful for the wonderful care they have been given while in East Hampton. Both they and the Pediatric Foundation which sponsors their stay in East Hampton feel that their great improvement is due to the excellent care given them by the foster mothers.
50 Years Ago 1973
From The East Hampton Star, August 23
Families, adults, kids and dogs were all sprawled on the grass at Gosman’s Dock on Sunday to hear the Chico Hamilton Quintet, one of America’s great jazz groups. The clean, salty air, the toot of the boats as they entered the harbor, and that fantastic music made for an enjoyable afternoon for everyone present.
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The traditional Labor Day cutoff between the frenzied social gyrations of summer and the equally frenzied political gyrations of an election-year autumn has overflowed its boundaries rather more than usual this season, with both Democrats and Republicans benefiting from the spillage.
Wednesday has been a popular day for cocktail benefits and rallies in the past three weeks. On the night of Aug. 15, members of both political parties foregathered; the Democrats at the Driftwood Lane home of Mr. and Mrs. William Adler, and the Republicans at the Huntting Inn, East Hampton.
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Peter Gimbel’s film “Blue Water, White Death” will be shown at the New York Ocean Science Laboratory, Montauk, at 8:15 p.m. next Thursday, Aug. 30. Peter Matthiessen of Sagaponack helped in the making of the documentary on the great white shark.
The film will be the last program in a series of eight “Ecologically Yours” events put on by NYOSL. There will be no admission charge.
25 Years Ago 1998
From The East Hampton Star, August 27
The public hearing is over, but the debate raging in East Hampton over legislation that would redefine horse farms and riding academies, and that could put an end to the proposed Kilmore Horse Farm in Wainscott, is far from finished.
Wainscott neighbors, farmers, and equestrians filled the Town Hall courtroom to capacity on Friday, alternately urging the Town Board to adopt the changes in the law and criticizing it for even suggesting them.
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The crowd that took every seat, plopped down on the floor, lined the walls, and spilled into the hall made it clear this was not a run-of-the-mill Zoning Board of Appeals hearing to protest a neighbor’s plan to build a pool or tennis court.
The hundreds of people who crammed into Southampton Town Hall last Thursday had come to demand that building permits for Ira Rennert’s colossal estate in Sagaponack be overturned.
Mr. Rennert, of Manhattan, is a financier whose Renco holding company controls a number of mines and industries.
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“It’s brilliant.” “It’s great craic.” “It’s grand.”
In other words, spending a summer here is enormous fun, at least according to the Irish students who come to work — and, some have observed, to party mightily — but only, the students add quickly, if one is lucky or persistent enough to find an affordable place to live.
