Villages

They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky — but this isn't the Addams family we're talking about. They're the Social Skellies, a front-yard installation on Route 114 in East Hampton that started as a Halloween display in 2020 but has since become a platform for social commentary and parodies of pop-culture phenomena.

Samantha Harris and William Murphy of St. Louis were married on Sept. 16 at the Country Club in Chestnut Hill, Mass. The bride’s brothers, Jonathan Harris and Dashiell Harris, and the groom’s brother, Andrew Murphy, officiated.

There’s a lot we expect from our local governments, but East Hampton Village may be the only municipality that has a candy assistance program to help residents meet the high cost of handing out candy to trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

As Halloween approaches, you’re probably not thinking of dressing up as a European monarch or other foreign potentate, but to members of the Maidstone Club in October 1940, as seen in this photo from The Star’s archive, this was a stellar idea.

From an 1898 labor shortage in a building boom, to the day 50 years later when a 40-foot gondola was trundled down Main Street, this was East Hampton.

There is something creepy about cormorants. From most distances, they look black, with long thick necks, tails, and wings. In flight, they appear like black crosses. Against a cormorant, fish have no hope; the tip of their orange bill is hook-shaped, a perfect tool to capture over 250 species of fish. Soon those single black crosses will join to form sky-wide, shape-shifting patterns as they migrate away.

One C. Schenck cleans his gutters in 1898, and other public spiritedness from The Star of yesteryear.

With its last effort at creating affordable housing legislation struck down by the New York State Supreme Court in April, the Sag Harbor Village Board introduced a new affordable housing initiative at last week’s board meeting, “just to start the conversation,” said Mayor Tom Gardella.

This receipt, dated Oct. 21, 1703, records the first annual payment by East Hampton settlers to the Montaukett people. The payment amounted to a rental fee for the use of grazing lands on the Montauk peninsula.

It had been at least 30 years, likely more, since the Wainscott Sewing Society did any actual sewing. That changed earlier this year, when eight members of the group, all with multigenerational ties to the hamlet, took up scissors, needles, and thread once more.

Thirty-three years ago, Theo Landi’s sister-in-law Geri Sanicola said to her, “This town needs a party shop.” Mrs. Landi replied, “You find a spot and maybe we’ll do it.” The Party Shoppe has been helping to make birthday parties and holidays complete ever since.

At a short but sweet East Hampton Village Board work session on Oct. 5, the village dedicated the Pantigo Mill behind the Home, Sweet Home Museum to Hugh King, the village historian.