Villages

Edward Mulford Baker wrote this letter to his only brother, David Baker, while commanding the Daniel Webster on an 1839 whaling voyage out of Sag Harbor to the South Seas.

When the word “suffered” ends up in a year-end real estate home-sales report, you know it can’t be good. And while Judi Desiderio, the C.E.O. and president of Town and Country Real Estate, said “the worst is yet to come,” the rental market is showing strength, and the stock market is hitting new highs.

The developers of the South Fork Wind farm, the country’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm, announced last week that offshore construction had surpassed the halfway point, with completed installation of seven of its 12 turbines.

An unnamed, mostly hidden waterway runs through East Hampton Village, carrying nutrients from fertilizers, pesticides, road debris, trash, pets, wildlife, and anything else that falls in its wide watershed into Hook Pond and out to the ocean.

It was a big deal 25 years ago when Caldor, the discount retailer with a 66,000-square-foot store in Bridgehampton, went bankrupt. And more rich tales of the South Fork’s past.

When the ball drops marking the beginning of the new year, for some, a silent gun goes off and an invisible race begins. They’re the bird listers, and their goal is to find as many different species of birds as they can over the next year.

A longstanding tradition, Calvary Baptist Church’s annual celebration of Martin Luther King’s Birthday, was carried forth on Sunday in the form of what many hope will become a new tradition: an interfaith prayer service at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church that loops in the wider faith communities of East Hampton.

For many years, the Marmador, a family-run luncheonette in the Edwards Theater building on Main Street, was the choice for hungry people of all stripes.

A century ago, the State College of Agriculture at Ithaca called attention to a statewide Home Paper Week, in praise of the country weekly. Times have changed, reader.

Coyote sightings on the North Fork this autumn and a month ago in Bridgehampton are not surprising to those who study this wide-ranging mammal. Coyotes have never bred in Suffolk County, but with one-off sightings increasing in frequency, the question isn’t if they will breed here but when.

Ruth Bedford Moran (1870-1948), seen here on a wicker “sleigh” in San Diego, and her father, the painter Thomas Moran (1837-1926), were among East Hampton’s early and prominent winter snowbirds.

A cold blast from the past: One January day in 1899, the temperature here hit zero. Afterward — need it be said? — “several days of good skating” were “enjoyed on Town Pond.”

Montauk again took the brunt of the damage, with heavy flooding downtown and at Ditch Plain.

When Leroy and Julia Kayser were married the Allies had not yet landed on the beaches of Normandy. “It Had to Be You” by Helen Forrest and Dick Haymes was a radio hit, and the movie “Casablanca” was about to win the Oscar for best picture.

In this circa 1900 glass-plate image from The Star’s archive, the Boughton family has gathered for a feast. Edward Smith Boughton, who bought this newspaper, sits at the head of the table.

When darkness closed out the Audubon Montauk Christmas Bird Count and the species were tallied, participants agreed that the good weather might have played a role in the total: 134 were found, the highest in a decade.

From small litter like discarded face masks, bottles, and packages to bigger things like car parts, old appliances, and furniture, to the signs advertising tutors, nannies, soccer camps, and even lawn clippings and leaves, keeping up with illegal dumping and punishing the scofflaws is a challenge.

What’s old is new again: notes from the East Hampton zoning code battles of 25 years ago. And much else of interest from The Star of yesteryear.

Record crowds turned out for New Year's Day polar plunges at Main Beach in East Hampton and Beach Lane in Wainscott, helping to raise some $40,000 for local food pantries.

Near a gap in the 30-foot-tall border wall that separates the United States from Mexico, Elissa McLean and Andy Winter found themselves wrapped up in humanitarian efforts to aid the hundreds of refugees who have been pouring into the U.S. daily, waiting — and hoping — to be picked up by Border Patrol agents so they can begin the process of seeking asylum, having fled extreme violence, corruption, and crime in their home countries.

In this photo from The Star’s archive, N. Sherrill Foster shows a visitor to Clinton Academy a clock that once hung from the Presbyterian Church’s belfry.

A class-action court ruling on Halloween, stemming from an antitrust trial in Kansas City, Mo., is the talk of the town among real estate professionals here. A federal jury found that the National Association of Realtors and multiple large brokerage firms had “conspired to artificially inflate the commissions paid to real estate agents,” The New York Times reported that day, calling it “a decision that could radically alter the home-buying process in the United States.”

Low spawning levels have spurred the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to put forth a comprehensive management plan to rebuild the stocks of striped bass.

Part of the charm of the Sagaponack Post Office, whose building is now undergoing a major renovation, was the presence of over 600 brass post boxes, opened with a combination lock, and adored by residents. While the new owner has no control over what happens to the old boxes, she has sourced and secured 200 more, so that when the post office reopens, hopefully by the end of next summer, there are enough for every resident.

The day 125 years ago when George Strong, a carpenter working on the Maidstone Inn, plummeted 80 feet without breaking anything. And more drama ripped from the pages of your local paper of record.

Concerned Citizens of Montauk has appointed Kay Tyler, who previously served as the organization’s director of development and marketing, as its executive director.

Near-hurricane-level winds, tides, and rain blasted the East End on Monday, leaving downtown Montauk with far more damage than any other place in Suffolk County.

From The Star’s photo archive, this Christmas card sent by Lion Gardiner (1878-1936) and Ida S. Loomis Gardiner (1881-1973) shows the Gardiner House on Ocean Avenue covered in snow.

Tidings of comfort and joy from The Star of yore to you, dear reader.

When Santa Claus visited Long Wharf on Dec. 9 as part of the Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce’s tree-lighting festivities, what families may not have known was that the man originally slated to play the role, Ken Dorph, had been asked to return his red suit to the chamber three days earlier.