Villages

One C. Schenck cleans his gutters in 1898, and other public spiritedness from The Star of yesteryear.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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

The grounds of Mulford Farm on James Lane will be host to Revolutionary War re-enactors, costumed interpreters, games, music, historical craft demonstrations, and more on Sunday when the East Hampton Historical Society has a free family history festival celebrating the town’s 375th anniversary.

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.

Flu season doesn’t start until after Thanksgiving, right? Wrong. Dr. George Dempsey, the medical director of East Hampton Family Medicine on Pantigo Road, wrote last week to say he’s already had a handful of patients test positive in the office. “Never before last year did we see so many this early,” said Dr. Nadia Persheff, a pediatrician in Southampton.

On Sept. 24, 1815, Abraham M. Smith of East Hampton wrote Henry Packer Dering (1762-1822), Sag Harbor’s customs collector, with news of a shipwreck the day before at Montauk, a brig from Russia carrying hemp and iron.

Mike and Liz McCarron of Montauk have announced the engagement of their son Benjamin Knute McCarron to Colleen Elizabeth Sherlock, whose parents are Kevin and Debbie Sherlock of Montauk and Delray Beach, Fla.

UPDATE: Those wishing to put their rakes to the test for the East Hampton Town Trustees’ Largest Clam Contest will have to wait a bit longer to dig for the winners in Lake Montauk, Napeague Harbor, Accabonac Harbor, Hog Creek, and Three Mile Harbor, as heavy rains have closed many areas to shellfishing and forced a second rescheduling of the annual event.

A 60-ton, combat-ready tank that occupied a prominent location at the Everit Albert Herter V.F.W. Post 550 at the entrance to East Hampton Village was removed last week after a nearly 30-year residence. 

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

When it arrives at the Bridgehampton Museum on Sunday for display, one particular car, a Lola T70 Eagle, will have come full circle, as race cars tend to do. Fifty-seven years ago, the legendary driver Dan Gurney drove it to win the 1966 Can Am race in Bridgehampton. On Sunday, the historically significant car will be on view for the public for two hours only — 9 to 11 a.m. — during the museum’s annual Cars and Coffee event.

Other than the occasional loud talker in the quiet area, the John Jermain Memorial Library is a pretty chill place. Next Thursday, however, from 2 to 8 p.m., registered voters in the Sag Harbor School District can show up to vote in a contested library board race, in which three candidates are vying for two spots, and weigh in on the budget proposal.

South Fork residents were among an estimated 75,000 people who participated in Sunday’s March to End Fossil Fuels in Manhattan, at the conclusion of the hottest summer since global record-keeping of temperatures began and amid multiple signals around the world that climate change is happening now and getting worse. “I’m here personally because my granddaughter is also here, and I want a livable planet for her and her generation, and, in fact, all living beings,” said Francesca Rheannon of Springs, who is on East Hampton Town’s Energy and Sustainability Advisory Committee.

In this photo, the artists Lee Krasner (1908-1984), Robert Motherwell (1915-1991), and Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) chat in front of one of de Kooning’s paintings at the Fourth Annual Invitational Exhibition at Guild Hall.