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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Children gather to decorate the windows of Tony’s Sport Shop on Newtown Lane leading up to Halloween in 1976 in this photograph from The Star’s archive. Tony Cangiolosi ran the store from 1966 to 1980.

Beginning Saturday and continuing for the next six weekends, the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society will lead hikes that break the length of the town’s portion of the Paumanok Path into roughly eight-mile sections, starting in Wainscott and ending at Montauk Point.

After 22 years at Amagansett Square, Mandala Yoga Center for Healing Arts will soon move to Scoville Hall on Meeting House Lane, not far from its existing location. Scoville Hall has served as a satellite space for Mandala’s yoga classes since 2021.

The Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee was enthusiastic about a proposal to transform Wainscott Green and connect past, present, and future with the creation of a “celebratory memorial” to the Swamp and the Annex, the nightclub and restaurant that stood for many years on the site.

From the gruesome, watery death of a bootlegger in 1923 to East Hampton’s spirited 350th anniversary celebration parade 75 years later, we offer you a choice tour of past Star reportage.

After months of planning and one postponement due to inclement weather, East Hampton Town will celebrate its 375th anniversary on Saturday, weather permitting.

As people across the world mourned and prayed for those killed, wounded, and taken hostage in a violent surprise attack by the terrorist group Hamas in Israel on Saturday, Oct. 7, so too did the South Fork’s Jewish community, joined in solidarity by members and leaders of other religious organizations.

The South Fork's Jewish congregations will come together Wednesday night to rally in solidarity with Israel, mourn the victims of the terrorist attacks, and pray for the safety of those caught up in the violent conflict.

"We're ecstatic that in the three days we've been open the community has shown us more support than we could have ever imagined," said Geary Gubbins, who has run the shop at 53 Park Place since 2013. "It's just been a real shot in the arm to get ourselves back in gear." The shop had been closed since a water line break in February flooded several businesses in the village.

From a jaunty new bike path in 1898 to a 100-year-old discussion of the origin of the name “Accabonac,” and more from the Star of yesteryear.

This photo shows Carlton Davidson, left, with his wife, Helen, accepting a receipt from Edwin L. Sherrill Jr. of the East Hampton Town Marine Museum for the donation of a 6,000-pound cannon from the Culloden shipwreck.

What do Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy, Ikaria in Greece, Nicoya in Costa Rica, and Loma Linda in California have in common? They are considered by some health experts to be “blue zones” — places where people are living longer lives with fewer health troubles than in the rest of the world. Dr. David Luu thinks Sag Harbor Village is going to be on that list someday soon.

An event that many dog owners look forward to all year, the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons Stroll to the Sea dog walk, will happen on Sunday morning starting at the East Hampton Historical Society’s Mulford Farm at 9. This will be ARF’s 30th Stroll to the Sea, and the two-mile walk will go from the farm to Main Beach and back. 

Mansell Ambrose married her longtime beau, Henry Beveridge, on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 in the gardens of Villa des Amis in Bridgehampton.

It was a bad year to be a piping plover in East Hampton. In fact, the worst since at least 2008. While 32 pairs of plovers made East Hampton Town beaches their summer homes, only seven of those pairs were successful in fledging 15 young. Plovers in Southampton Town had a more successful summer.

Heading east? You'll have your choice of activities in Montauk from the Montauk Chamber of Commerce’s Fall Festival to an open house at the firehouse and two days of extra fun at the Montauk Lighthouse.

Concerned Citizens of Montauk has started a petition in support of a project the group pitched to the East Hampton Town Board that would see goats used to remove invasive vegetation in a portion of the roughly 40-acre Arthur Benson Preserve. As of Wednesday morning, it had 210 signatures.

Behold, the Edison Projectoscope! And much more from the Star of yore.