This photograph, part of The East Hampton Star’s archive, once belonged to Catherine Osterberg Kelsey Richard (b. 1934). It shows a Christmas party for children on Dec. 19, 1948, at the Star of the East Masonic Lodge. Most of the children are not identified. The adults, from left, are George Eichhorn, John A. Craft, William LeVesconte, Catherine Hughes Osterberg (1901-1979), Mayor Jud Bannister dressed as Santa Claus, Joel Osterberg holding 4-year-old Linda Leddy, and Joseph Dreesen.
The Star of the East Masonic Lodge was established in 1903. In 1948 it could be found at 2 Main Street, at the corner of Fithian Lane and Main Street, where London Jewelers stands today. This newspaper reported on Dec. 16, 1948, that arrangements had been made for 250 children to attend the Christmas party. Mr. Eichhorn, a previous master of the lodge, was in charge of running it.
Mr. Dreesen (1888-1969) was the original owner of Dreesen’s Market on Newtown Lane, although under his tenure it was really a butcher shop rather than a source of beloved doughnuts. A few weeks after this photograph was taken, on Jan. 13, 1949, Mr. LeVesconte would become master of the lodge, and Mr. Osterberg (1905-1978) would become the senior deacon.
Mr. Osterberg and Catherine Hughes Osterberg were in East Hampton for only a few years, but their children stayed in the area. In 1947, he began working in Walter Hedges’s garage on “the Bridgehampton Road.” Previously, he had served as the commander at the Georgica Life-Saving Station, and he was the commander of stations at Montauk Point and Fire Island, according to his family. Census and military records indicate that he had also been stationed in Norfolk, Va., Atlanta, St. Petersburg, Fla., Staten Island, and Cape May, N.J., during his Coast Guard career.
Mr. Osterberg’s daughter Catherine had this photo in her possession and most likely gave it to The Star sometime after her marriage to Robert Kelsey in 1953.
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Andrea Meyer, a librarian and archivist, is head of collection for the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection.
