Villages

Tales of bootlegging, of a fishing trip that netted a torpedo, and of a village rocked by the overwhelming stench of seaweed.

What appeared at first to be a quirky but heartwarming story about a friendly mute swan that had taken to roaming the streets of Sag Harbor, often stopping traffic and interacting with people, ended tragically just a few weeks after the bird had become a summertime character on the north end of Main Street.

The trails are mapped today, but when two former college classmates began their horseback rides on them decades ago, without maps or smartphones to guide them, the goal was to find a path that stretched through the woods and reached the edge of the ocean. With an expanded group of women, they are still exploring the trails today.

“This has been a longtime problem on the South Fork,” Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. said in reference to a universal truth about Long Island: that gas prices generally get higher the farther east you go. The change in gas prices between UpIsland and the South Fork can be startling, and the change from just Southampton to Montauk even more so.

When Ken Lustbader and Jay Kidd first saw Casey, a female husky mix with special needs, at the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons adoption center 10 years ago, they were struck by her “sweet energy and intrinsic kindness.” Mr. Lustbader remembers Mr. Kidd saying, “that’s the dog we need.”

On Sept. 6, 1898, Col. Theodore Roosevelt paid a visit to the Montauk Lighthouse, signing this guestbook owned by Capt. J.G. Scott, the Lighthouse keeper.

A hundred years ago, a car came barreling onto a Maidstone Club green, to the astonishment of golfers and a caddy, who had to scramble to avoid being hit. And more adventures from the pages of The Star of yore.

Back to the Bays is spearheading a project to build an oyster reef in Sag Harbor, which is bringing together local government and private citizens, as well as children.

Working to rekindle a sense of community among people with a deep history here, an old group with a new name — the Sons and Daughters of East Hampton — got together this week at the East Hampton Historical Farm Museum to reminisce and reconnect.

On Friday, in a unanimous decision, the village board terminated two easements and renegotiated the use of the Osborn-Jackson House on Main Street. It will no longer have to be a museum.

This card from the photographer Kathryn McLaughlin Abbe to Enez Whipple, the Guild Hall director at the time, is from the Local Artist Research Archive.

Tensions ran high on Monday at East Hampton Town Hall, where the Springs Park Committee met to go over plans for the future of the park.

From an epic 1920s dog show to the dawn of the lobster pirate at the end of the 1940s, it happened here.

After heavy rain and flash flooding on Sunday, Concerned Citizens of Montauk’s weekly tests of water samples collected at sites in Montauk, Napeague, Amagansett, Springs, and East Hampton “revealed through-the-roof dangerous bacteria levels,” at all but two spots, including test spots on the ocean.

The "cup count," now a popular community attraction at the Monogram Shop in East Hampton, has accurately predicted four out of five winners of presidential races since its inception in 2004.

The Fire Department-sponsored fireworks show scheduled for Saturday night at East Hampton Village's Main Beach has been canceled, with a potential new date to be announced in the next two weeks. Main Beach has also been closed to swimming for the time being.

The Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons will host its annual Bow Wow Meow Ball on Saturday to commemorate its 50th anniversary with a night of cocktails, dinner, and dancing the proceeds of which support ARF’s work to help animals in need.

With a recent surge in demand from hospitals, the New York Blood Center is in urgent need of type O+ and O- donors. The organization is seeing the lowest levels of donated blood since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, according to a release.

A tale of two artists: This Star photo by Helen Harrison shows the 8-foot-by-20-foot mural Jimmy Ernst painted on David Shaw’s Amagansett house.

In June, when Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Jerry Garguilo ordered the dissolution of the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association, the only question left unanswered was what would happen with the nearly $400,000 in the association’s bank account.

While an earlier meeting in July addressed residents’ most immediate concern — frequent and long-lasting electrical outages at the East Hampton Village Manufactured Home Community — a follow-up meeting last week addressed issues with septic tanks, roads, and general safety, in addition to the electrical issues.

Traffic was in the sights of the Sag Harbor Village Board Tuesday night, as members rejected two proposals to stem the incessant flow and issued a request for more, hoping to bring in some new engineering voices.

A Sag Harbor woman took down two trees and is now facing two charges: One for removing a tree of over 12 inches in diameter without a permit, and one for removing a tree that was on village property.

The Montauk Historical Society, Eastville Community Historical Society, and the Southampton African American Museum have come together to organize Amistad Week, a series of educational and commemorative events beginning next Thursday, centered around the 128-foot schooner Amistad, a replica of a vessel that held an infamous place in world history.

Strikes hit the Fahys Watchcase Factory in Sag Harbor 100 years ago and the A&P here 50 years ago. Plus a hair-raising airplane crash over North Haven.

The Emmy Award-winning actor Hank Azaria will speak out about his personal journey of substance misuse and recovery at a family event for the nonprofit Generation S.O.S.on Sunday in Water Mill.

Amid a pervading sense of uncertainty — politics and international affairs being what they are — something positive is happening here, as a rabbi and a minister engage in friendly dialogue and instructive commentary on “the best parables of Jewish and Christian literature.”

It may have been from 185 years ago, but Juliana MacLachlan Gardiner’s letter from Saratoga Springs to her daughter expresses the same anxieties of a parent of a teen today.

The Flying Point Foundation for Autism has two goals in announcing its new Crush It! campaign: challenge people to reach personal health goals while raising money for the organization.

Leaders of the Shinnecock Indian Nation broke ground Friday on a gas station and travel plaza on Sunrise Highway in Hampton Bays that will span approximately 10 acres of tribal territory just north of the highway’s westbound lanes and is expected to be complete by the spring of 2025.