Villages

Hugh King, the East Hampton Town historian, is more at ease sharing interesting tidbits from, say, the 1829 town trustees minutes than he is with augmented reality or the notion of a digital avatar. But despite himself, he came face to face with both earlier this week at the Mulford Farm, where the East Hampton Historical Society is putting his likeness to work to tell the story of the role the farm’s owner, Col. David Mulford, played in the leadup to the 1776 Battle of Long Island, and of his fate during the region’s subsequent occupation by the British.

The Hampton Library in Bridgehampton, last expanded 15 years ago, is kicking off a $1.5 million capital campaign this weekend with the aim of refurbishing the children’s room, expanding the young-adult room, doubling the size of its literacy space, and undertaking a range of technology enhancements and building improvements to meet the needs of a growing population of patrons.

Alfred R. Waud sketched this depiction of the Gardiner’s Island manor house while on assignment for Harper’s Weekly.

Steve Long, executive director of the East Hampton Historical Society, will be the guest speaker at the annual meeting of the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork on Sunday.

One self-styled prophet predicted the wrath of God would be brought down on the Atheneum in Sag Harbor shortly before it burned to the ground. Read all about it, and much more ripped from The Star’s storied pages.

Stony Brook Southampton Hospital has earned national recognition for overall patient safety and L.G.B.T.Q.+ health care equity, the hospital recently announced.

On April 22, an East Hampton Library patron discovered a poem, neatly handwritten in Spanish and tucked into the pages of a children’s picture book, and took it over to the children’s librarians. The poem piqued their attention. Who is this mysterious mother-daughter duo, known only by their first names, Carmen and Samantha?

In this photo from The Star’s archive, Sy Kaback hands over a trophy to Tom Wiggins, who was second in the East Hampton Yacht Club’s big race of 1989.

The man who created a fairy village in a Montauk nature preserve has removed the plastic figurines and tiny structures after a neighbor complained that the whimsical installation was junking up the preserve. “I didn’t know it would be such a polarizing thing,” he said.

An ode to May on Long Island from 1899, among other charms (and outrages) from Ye Olde Star.

A female minke whale measuring 26 feet long and weighing nearly 8,000 pounds washed up dead on a Bridgehampton beach on Wednesday. "It had a thin blubber layer; we would consider it underweight. It was severely decomposed," said Rob DiGiovanni, chief scientist for the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society.

Dock to Dish, a restaurant-supported fishery cooperative founded in Montauk in 2012, has new owners and a renewed focus on getting fresh-from-the-boat seafood directly into the kitchens of restaurants across the East End and the New York area. And the fact that most of the owners are also fishermen doesn’t hurt.

While not all the spaces in Jay Eastman’s newly renovated Park Place building have been leased, two anchors are in place: Amber Waves will move across the brick alleyway known as Eastman Way to occupy 64 Park Place, and a new burger and shake restaurant, Smokey Buns, will be next door at 68 Park Place.

This photo, taken in 1999 during a tour of the 1804 Gardiner Mill off James Lane, shows the smock-style windmill’s inner gears.

The dawn chorus of birdsong is different depending on your habitat, your location, and the time of year. Songbird migration will peak by mid-May. As songbirds migrate overhead during the night, they blanket the sleeping country with sound, calling to each other to keep their flocks together and tight. When they land, they sing us awake.

Way back in 1899, The Star had the good sense to call out the folly of changing old Long Island place names, singling out the late, lamented Good Ground, now pedestrian Hampton Bays.

Durell Godfrey, a photographer whose images have been a visual chronicle of life in East Hampton since her work was first published in The East Hampton Star more than 20 years ago, won third place in the Photographer of the Year category in the New York Press Association’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest.

A "fairy gnome village" in the Culloden Point Preserve, undoubtedly erected without a building permit, has become an amusing but also divisive issue for those living on Montauk's lesser-known point.

With the election of Lisa Goree to the role of tribal chairperson on April 2, there’s a woman in charge of the Shinnecock Indian Nation — traditionally a matriarchal culture — for the first time in centuries.

“Be it remembered” opens each case recorded in this book, which was kept by two Suffolk County justices of the peace, both Bridgehamptoners, over the course of 42 years, from 1774 through 1816.

With a buzz of pride and anticipation in the air, and surrounded by friends, loved ones, and even former fellow students, 120 adults who spent the last eight months learning to speak and write English with Ruta 27 — Programa de Inglés showcased their newly honed skills at the East Hampton Library last week.

Revisiting Mayor Ronald Rioux and the semi-famous dog-leash debate and petitioning of 1974. Plus much more from The Star of yore.

Dozens of Muslim men, women, and children gathered on April 10 at Agawam Park in Southampton Village to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr and break their Ramadan fast together with a multicultural potluck-style celebration. The observance of this Muslim holiday wasn't the only topic on their minds.

Long Island’s South Fork, known for beaches, maritime history, and fancy people, is also known for its hedges. Hedge installation and maintenance are big business, and there could be a whole book about hedges, with different varieties popular during different eras. In the last decade, for example, the “green giant,” a now ubiquitous tree, has been placed along property lines throughout the Hamptons. It’s here to stay, and grow, and grow.

This photo from the Amagansett Historical Association shows Anastasie Parsons Mulford (1869-1963) with her arm around her daughter, Louise Parsons Mulford (1899-1963). They ran the Windmill Cottage boarding house for many years.

Hang tight, Montauk — yes, the White’s Drug and Department Store building has a new owner, but the potential loss of the hamlet’s only pharmacy is not a foregone conclusion. That’s because the building’s new owner is a doctor himself who said he understands why pharmacies are important.

Earth Day on Monday brings with it the kickoff weekend for the East Hampton Town Litter Action Committee’s No Fling Spring, and there will be cleanup efforts all over town.

This week’s highlight? The day in 1974 when the town board allowed police officers to sport mustaches and sideburns, but not beards and goatees. Please read on.

A simple brick patio before the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals became intriguing, what with the related history of flouting both Z.B.A. and court decisions and accusations of insider influence.

Two weeks ago, a woman who answered a call to Zero Bond in Manhattan denied that the private social club — which offers its members space for meals, drinks, and meetings — was looking to open in East Hampton. This week, however, an attorney representing the Hedges Inn, with which Zero Bond is negotiating a lease, said, "We're not denying that at all."