125 Years Ago 1899
From The East Hampton Star, March 3
On account of the popularity of the Alonzo Hatch Electro-Photo Co., which will show here to-night, as demonstrated by the large advance sale of seats, a return date has been secured. The company will occupy Clinton Hall again next Tuesday evening, March 7.
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The steamboat Montauk, of the Montauk Steamboat Company, will make the first trip of the season of 1899 about March 15, under command of Captain Abraham Mitchell. The Montauk will leave Sag Harbor this week for Manhattan to receive repairs before going into commission.
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John L. Sherwood, of the firm of Lyon & Sherwood, and C.S. Stillwell, of Sag Harbor, will sail for Cuba tomorrow, on the United States twin-screw steamer Paris. They will touch at Porto Rico, the Windward Islands, Jamaica and Nassau, and will visit all the important parts of the southern islands.
100 Years Ago 1924
From The East Hampton Star, February 29
The visit of members of the Lions Club of Southampton, February 18, with a representative gathering of local business men may serve a dual purpose, that of the organization of either a local Lions Club or a similar organization of the business men, for which there is an urgent need, as testified by all of the local merchants at the meeting, also the advertising of the natural resources the Hamptons afford as summer resorts. It is hoped that both objects will be accomplished.
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The first successful raid of rum smugglers at Montauk was made Tuesday night, about 1:30, by Under Sheriff Weidner and Deputy Sheriff Moir of Sheriff Biggs’ office, Riverhead, and two local officers, when they surprised a bunch of forty or fifty bootleggers and boatmen at Frank Parsons’ dock, Fort Pond Bay, and succeeded in seizing fifty or sixty cases of liquor.
Early in the evening it was apparent to residents of this village that rum running in a big, wholesale fashion was going to take place at Montauk, and, on complaint of several residents, Sheriff Biggs ordered two of his men to proceed to Montauk.
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Chief of Police Michael Corrigan, of Sag Harbor, dropped dead about 7:20, Tuesday evening, while on duty in front of Brown’s drug store in that village. Dr J.H. McCort, who was summoned, stated that Mr. Corrigan had died instantly. He had a severe attack of acute indigestion two weeks ago and had not fully recovered. Mr. Corrigan, who was seventy-one years old, was born at Sag Harbor and was highly esteemed by a large circle of friends and acquaintances, being a splendid type of citizen.
75 Years Ago 1949
From The East Hampton Star, March 3
The John Drew Theater in Guild Hall has been leased for next summer to Forrest C. Haring, associated with the Dwight Deere Wiman office in New York, according to the announcement by Mrs. Valentine E. Macy, chairman of the Guild Hall Drama Committee.
Mr. Haring has for the past twenty years been general manager for the producers, Brady and Wiman, then solely for Mr. Wiman. He is currently managing “The Big Knife” by Clifford Odets, which stars John Garfield.
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The dog license tax produced $65,007.20 in Suffolk last year, and of this amount $24,948.50 was paid out on claims for damages done by dogs while $19,613.99 was expended for administrative costs, according to a county treasurer’s statement filed Monday with the Board of Supervisors.
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In spite of the snowstorm, the annual St. Luke’s card party for the benefit of the bus fund, which was held at the new Parish House on Tuesday evening, was an outstanding success.
Over thirty tables were set up in the Assembly Room and after these were filled additional tables were put up in the Sunday School rooms. Unfortunately the twenty-five new card tables, which were purchased through contributions received by the card party chairman, Mrs. Frank Conklin, did not arrive in time for the party, due to the storm.
50 Years Ago 1974
From The East Hampton Star, February 28
Dr. William J. Ronan, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, lifted the hopes of at least some East End dealers in the tourist trade last Friday when he said that for $50 million the North and South Fork branches of the Long Island Rail Road could be put in “very good shape.”
The $50 million “ballpark” figure would result in 75-mile-per-hour train service between New York and Montauk within several years, Dr. Ronan told an audience of about 50 East End businessmen and government leaders who gathered at Gurney’s Inn, Montauk, to talk of the energy crunch and lunch courtesy of the hostelry’s owner, Nick Monte.
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The East Hampton Town Planner’s office on Bluff Road, Amagansett, was the scene of a special meeting last Friday morning between the Town Planners and the developers of the former Bell Estate. Present were four members of the Planning Board; Thomas M. Thorsen, Town planner; Dwayne Whelan, Town attorney; Eugene Michos, consulting engineer, and a colleague; Eugene Haas of the Zoning Board of Appeals; and Councilwoman Mary Fallon.
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Voters may have nine more months to incubate on the question of who they will elect or reelect in November, but State Assembly Speaker Perry B. Duryea’s political gestation period has already begun.
Tomorrow, Mr. Duryea will hold the fifth and sixth in a series of “Legislative Listen-Ins” that he has been conducting throughout the First Assembly District in what he says is an attempt to learn his constituents’ opinions on “legislative” matters. The two will be at the Gold Crest Manor, Southampton, from 10 a.m. to noon, and at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett from 2 to 4 p.m.
25 Years Ago 1999
From The East Hampton Star, March 4
By yesterday, the Long Island Rail Road was to have completed the cleanup of more than 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel that spilled onto the tracks and soil near the Montauk station at 8:10 p.m. last Thursday — close enough to Fort Pond to threaten its surrounding wetlands.
Officials at the State Department of Environmental Conservation, who were notified within an hour of the spill, called it an “accident,” the result, in all likelihood, of weather conditions.
Heavy snow was falling on Montauk at the time, from a late-winter northeaster stalled offshore for nearly two days.
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At a clamorous meeting Monday with five stone-faced Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials, opponents of the Millstone Two nuclear power plant charged the Federal agency with indifference to Long Islanders’ concerns and bias in favor of the nuclear power industry.
Nearly all the speakers at Riverhead Town Hall that day reproached, and even taunted and harangued, the N.R.C. representatives.
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It used to be called the off-season: Many East Hampton retailers and restaurants, expecting to go hungry for customers, would close after Christmas for a month or two, leaving “See you in March or April” messages on their front doors.
No more.
Whether a credit to mild weather or Wall Street winnings, business in East Hampton is markedly robust this winter — a trend shopowners first identified last year that continues apace.
