Villages

As Independence Day weekend approaches, locals and visitors from all over the world are getting ready to pack together onto narrow strips of coveted coastline to partake in the time-honored tradition of the East End’s annual fireworks shows, each of which features the work of Fireworks by Grucci, the sixth-generation family-owned company based in Bellport.

“I think this is the most concentrated spot for bluebirds in all of New York State,” said Joe Giunta on a drizzly Saturday morning as he walked along a segment of a bluebird trail on Daniel’s Hole Road, adjacent to 600 acres of relatively open space.

Concerned Citizens of Montauk announced the election of Jessica James as the new board president at its annual meeting last month. Ms. James succeeds David Freudenthal, who has led the organization’s mission to protect Montauk’s unique environment through education, advocacy, and citizen action since 2021.

Recent roadwork on the shoulder of Route 114 between East Hampton and Sag Harbor has highlighted a truth long known to cyclists on the South Fork: Biking here can be terrifying.

This letter from Joseph Anthony & Co. to Henry Packer Dering exemplifies some of the responsibilities held by the customs master in Sag Harbor.

A discussion of the prosecutorial process and enforcing legal limits on the Trump administration will introduce a new era for the Hamptons Institute discussion series at Guild Hall in East Hampton on Monday at 7 p.m.

It may be bittersweet for Lee and Barbara Oldak of Amagansett Beach and Bicycle, which for three decades has met the outdoor recreation needs of South Fork residents and seasonal visitors, but this summer will be their last at the sales, rental, and repair shop at 1 Cross Highway.

Fifty years ago, Judith Hope, town supervisor, showed some political backbone. Who knew that would become so rare?

One of the essential roles of religion, Rabbi Jan Uhrbach of the Bridge Shul in Bridgehampton said this week, is to “help us hold onto our humanity, and remind us of the higher values that go beyond money and power and position and all of those things, in a time when the values that I hold dear are not only being violated, they’re being rejected as values.”

Hemerocallis may be an unfamiliar term, but the garden adjacent to Clinton Academy once bore the name. This photo shows the gate to the garden some two decades after its establishment in 1941.

The last few years have presented challenges the Springs Food Pantry’s founders could not have anticipated when it was first established. More than 600 families are now registered to receive the assistance it provides, and an average of 355 families are served each week.

A 22-year-old parking attendant at Sagg Main Beach was flashed, threatened, cajoled, and offered bribes for beach access back in 2000. And more from the Hamptons wars, summertime and otherwise.

Gathering Marketplace, a new “community-driven retail concept,” opened last week at 82 Park Place in East Hampton, in the storefront left vacant by the Party Shoppe in February.

Bacteria levels continued to exceed health standards at many sites on the East End in 2024. Now the public can access that data by way of new signs at beaches that link via QR code to a Blue Water Task Force website.

Weeks before Stony Brook Medicine’s hospitals and providers were to be removed from UnitedHealthcare’s network following the expiration of a contract, the two parties have come to terms with respect to new agreements for hospital, physician, and ancillary services.

This postcard from the Harvey Ginsberg Postcard Collection shows the D.W. McCord House on Hither Lane, designed by Grosvenor Atterbury. Dr. Clarence Rice was among its other esteemed owners.

Bioengineered in England, the Purple Tomato’s deep color is due to the presence of snapdragon genes, and the antioxidant-rich fruit is touted as having a longer shelf life than an heirloom variety.

The East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals said Friday it wants action, not talk, from Harry Macklowe, the billionaire real estate developer whose 64 West End Road property has long flouted village law.

When the Amagansett coast was mined — not by the Nazis, but by us. Fifty years later, there was a real invasion — of gypsy moths.

Sag Harbor Village Mayor Thomas Gardella and Bob Plumb and Aiden Corish of the village board were each re-elected on Tuesday in uncontested races.

Canio’s Cultural Cafe, the educational nonprofit that operated from Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor from 2009 until the bookstore’s closing in September, has found a new home at the Old Whalers Church, not far from its former Main Street site. 

There was rain, and then some, but there were plenty of rainbows at the East Hampton Village Pride Parade on Saturday, led this year by the Tony Award-winning performer, writer, and filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell as grand marshal. 

The Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center, in partnership with the Long Island Housing Coalition, will host an East End Community Housing Summit on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 

A celebration of the 143rd birthday of John Howard Payne was held throughout East Hampton over three weeks in 1934. This photo shows just one of the highlights, set up on the Guild Hall grounds.

The Ladies Village Improvement Society’s annual fair happens on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and this year’s “is bigger than ever,” the society says. Not only will the carousel be back, but the Playland area for kids will be expanded. There will be face painting, a roving magician, a bubble artist, and pony rides for the little ones. 

Frank Calvo, the longtime pharmacist at White’s Drug and Department Store, which closed on Oct. 31, has opened Montauk Chemists on Main Street and is selling over-the-counter merchandise including vitamins and self-care products. One week after an inspection of the store’s pharmacy, however, he is still awaiting New York State approval to operate it. 

Organizacion Latino Americana of Eastern Long Island is launching a rapid response action plan following an increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests on Long Island. Operation Stand and Protect has been established to provide access to “an active cohort of local volunteers who are ready to witness, engage, and act swiftly and peacefully to document ICE activities.”

In some ways, Gosman’s Dock, one of Montauk’s few remaining family-owned and operated businesses until its October 2024 sale, closely resembles the complex of restaurants and shops long revered by locals and visitors alike. In other ways, though, it is markedly different under its new ownership. 

When race cars, not jets, roared at the Westhampton Beach airport, and in the Same as It Ever Was Dept., a panic over worker housing from back in 2000.

A 2005 New York Times article credited the architect Norman Jaffe, who lived in Bridgehampton until his death in 1993, with pioneering the “design of rustic Modernist houses in the Hamptons.” Yet his houses, despite their significance in the architectural world, are largely unprotected. Even his own house was demolished after his death.