125 Years Ago 1899
From The East Hampton Star, April 7
Miss Agnew, of New York, a summer resident of East Hampton, has presented the East Hampton public library with a handsome volume entitled “Picturesque Sicily,” by her cousin, William Agnew Paton.
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Ernest Muchmore has two rare specimens of birds mounted and on exhibition. One is a Monkey Faced owl, which was shot at Gardiners Island. This bird, with its light brown and pearl colored markings, is very handsome. The other is an Albino crow. It is almost white, although of the same build as the black crow.
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The members of Wamponamon Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons who reside in Southampton town enjoyed themselves so much at the banquet tendered them in East Hampton last week that they now contemplate entertaining their East Hampton brethren at Sag Harbor some time this month.
100 Years Ago 1924
From The East Hampton Star, April 4
The primary election in East Hampton is one that will be remembered for some time, the interest taken by the party leaders and workers being just as strong as for a general town meeting. The two reasons given as being responsible for this interest were the Mills and MacIntosh contest for State Committeeman and the contests that arose in some of the districts for leadership.
The Mills supporters won out locally by a majority of ninety-two votes, Mills receiving 371 and MacIntosh 279. The most notable victory was in the fifth district, where MacIntosh led by a majority of fifty-eight.
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A most enthusiastic meeting of East Hampton businessmen was held at Maidstone Inn Wednesday evening, when the Lions Club of East Hampton was formally organized and officers elected. The keynote of the meeting, from start to finish, was boost East Hampton.
At 7 o’clock forty-five members of the new organization, together with a delegation of several members of the Southampton Lions Club, enjoyed one of Ralph Frood’s famous Maidstone dinners.
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The Third Annual Fashion and Home Exposition will open at Madison Square Garden at 8:00 p.m. on May 13th and continue until May 24.
More than a hundred firms, catering to fashions and the home, have reserved space for their exhibits. Many were prominent exhibitors during previous years.
The Egyptian settings and decorations which attracted so much favorable comment last year, when things King Tut were all the rage, are being replaced by an elaborate and beautiful Chinese treatment, executed by Samuel Asch, Exposition Engineer, and an army of designers, artists and decorators.
75 Years Ago 1949
From The East Hampton Star, April 7
The safe arrival of the 50-foot fishing boat “Dorothy and Edith,” owned by Edwin L. Sherrill Jr., at Montauk last evening came as good news to the families of three local men, who had started out of Lake Montauk Monday morning and were expected back the following night. Ted Lester and Ned Morford, both of Amagansett, were with Sherrill. They were about 125 miles off Long Island, in the Hudson Canyon, when the storm hit. The wind was southeast first and then shifted to the westward. Seas ran high and were characterized as confused seas by the three men. They started back for Montauk and kept on their course as best they could in the face of the storm.
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There is no flagpole on the Village Green!
East Hampton’s flagpole, erected in 1926 six weeks after the first flagpole on the Village Green had been struck by lightning, blew down in a high wind about 2:20 yesterday afternoon. Three motorists passing at that time barely escaped when the 90-foot pole, weighing several tons, snapped off just below the ground and with a sound like an explosion hit the ground, pointed toward the library.
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The Village Board has designated the week of April 11 as “Cleanup Week” for East Hampton. Let us show what we, the people of East Hampton, may do to improve the place in which we live, and to attract others to come and enjoy East Hampton. This is the season when people are planning their summer vacation, and it will mean a great deal to all in East Hampton if they will clean up, pick up, fix up, paint up their property in general, tear down and remove all old unsightly buildings, hedges, fences, tree stumps, etc.
50 Years Ago 1974
From The East Hampton Star, April 4
Supplying East Hampton Town service stations with gasoline and providing bus transportation for tourists and residents this season were two matters that received attention from the newly formed Town commerce committee at its first meeting, which was held last Thursday.
The committee, which includes as members heads of local Chambers of Commerce and representatives from various sectors of the Town’s business community, elected David Lee, a Sag Harbor merchant, as chairman. Anthony C. Wimbauer, the Town’s commerce coordinator, was named an ex-officio member.
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The East End Branch of the Long Island Chapter of the Nature Conservancy is in the process of being chartered as a chapter in its own right, it was announced here this week. The new chapter is to be called the “South Fork-Shelter Island Chapter, L.I.,” and Grace McGraw Smith has been named executive director. She had served as secretary to the branch.
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The East Hampton Town Board, meeting Tuesday morning, voted without dissension to upzone some 4,800 acres in Northwest but split when its Republican majority scolded Supervisor Judith Hope for writing adjectives which reportedly can jeopardize upzoning.
The zoning amendment was one of 11, proposed this winter and discussed profusely at a series of public hearings, to zone about a quarter of the Town’s land for two-acre instead of one-acre residential use. All accord with the Town’s six-year-old Comprehensive Plan. Nine, affecting some 5,500 acres in Springs, Amagansett, and Montauk, were enacted on March 19.
25 Years Ago 1999
From The East Hampton Star, April 8
“I’ve never seen so many,” was the reaction of Sam Sadove, a veteran marine biologist, upon returning from a visit to Great Gull Island on Saturday, where he found up to 2,000 seals hauled out on the rocks.
The dramatic rise in local seal populations could have implications beyond the popularity of seal-watching tours that have grown in proportion to the seals’ increase.
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Montauk was the surprised recipient of a large cloud of black smoke from a fire in a Styrofoam storage building at the Dow Chemical Plant in Gales Ferry, Conn., on Monday afternoon.
A prevailing north wind quickly carried the smoke across Block Island Sound to the eastern tip of Long Island, where it hung ominously for hours before dissipating into the darkness.
Montauk residents, unaware of its source, began to suspect a disaster at the Millstone Nuclear Power Station.
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A bright yellow flier attacking the East Hampton Town Democrats and calling for the resignation of the town planning director and natural resources director over the bulldozing of Sammy’s Beach has frustrated Democrats, angered some Republicans, and left the Friends of Sammy’s Beach seething.
“It’s a nasty way of going about making a political statement,” said Charles Ehren. The posters were tacked up in neighborhoods around Sammy’s Beach last week.
