125 Years Ago 1898
From The East Hampton Star, September 2
The bicycle path the length of Ocean avenue, built through the efforts of A.A. Culver, has already proved a great convenience. It affords a pleasant ride from the Main street to the beach. Soon after the path was completed signs were hung over the sidewalk on Ocean avenue, notifying the public that bicycle riding on the sidewalk is prohibited by law. On Tuesday night of last week some evil-disposed person broke the signs down and made way with them.
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Frank Grimshaw has just completed the large addition to Mrs. Tyler’s house, and the job reflects much credit upon the builder. The lower room, which occupies all of the first floor of the addition, is finished in colonial style, being patterned after the parlor in the John Howard Payne house.
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Private Pilling, of Company G, Eighth Infantry, while waiting for a train at the East Hampton station on Sunday, became very ill. He was taken to Mrs. Hawthorn’s house, but there being no room in the house, a comfortable bed was provided in the barn and the sick soldier was cared for all night by Sergeant Carlson, of the Second Vol. Engineers, who had also been waiting at the station for a train. On Monday Pilling was sufficiently recovered to return to camp.
100 Years Ago 1923
From The East Hampton Star, August 31
Strike or no strike, the coal situation in East Hampton is a precarious one. Householders who have not laid in a supply for the winter face the prospect of having to get along on short rations. The majority of homes in East Hampton burn anywhere from eight to twelve tons of coal, for heating and cooking purposes, during the cold months.
Figure this out at $17.50 to $20 per ton and you will see how expensive it is going to be for the householder to exist in comfort this winter.
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Another event that will interest East Hampton residents will be the saddle horse show and paper chase this afternoon at 2:30, on the grounds of Frank B. Wiborg. The show is being given for the benefit of the East Hampton Neighborhood House.
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Saturday, September 8, at 9 a.m., the registration of the new pupils will be held in the kindergarten rooms, and at 2 p.m. there will be a general teachers meeting in the high school study hall.
Monday, September 10, will be the opening day of school.
The new school building will not be ready for occupancy by all sections of the school on the opening day. The first four grades and the seventh and eighth grade will begin the year in quarters in the new school building and the remainder of the school will be transferred to it as soon as the quarters are prepared.
75 Years Ago 1948
From The East Hampton Star, September 2
The mysterious theft of four pieces of jewelry valued at $36,200 from the residence of Thomas Kelland on Dunemere Lane has baffled investigators since it was reported on Sunday, and the robbery is the biggest that has taken place here in a number of years. Jewel thefts in Nassau county have occurred this year, and investigators feel that there is a connection with the Kelland theft and the robberies in Nassau.
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A further appropriation of county funds for the reconditioning of Long Wharf, the 1,000-foot pier at Sag Harbor constructed by the Long Island Railroad many years ago, was requested Monday by a delegation of Sag Harbor businessmen and civic leaders who appeared before the Board of Supervisors in session at Riverhead. The big dock is now county property, having been deeded over by the village of Sag Harbor about a year ago after the railroad had dedicated it to the village.
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About a year ago close to seventy-five residents of the westerly section of East Hampton, known as Georgica, signed a petition to be included in the Incorporated Village of East Hampton, and on Friday, Sept. 10, a special election will be held in the Village offices to decide the issue.
This section is about two miles from the center of the village and is mainly residential. The petitioners in asking to be included in the village are anxious for the protection which the village zoning ordinances provide for the remainder of the community.
50 Years Ago 1973
From The East Hampton Star, August 30
More than 800,000 souls will swell the present population of Suffolk County in the next 30 years, making it the “largest gainer by far” of any County in the tristate metropolitan region, according to a recently released study by the Regional Plan Association.
Almost all of the new residents, however, will settle in western Suffolk, a spokesman for the Association said this week.
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Complaints about groupers, single men and women who band together to rent summer homes, have dwindled here this summer, whether because there are fewer of them, or because no all-night parties of the late ‘60s volleyball variety have been reported, or because people have gotten used to the phenomenon, or for some other inscrutable reason.
Since May, the East Hampton Town Police and building inspector have received a total of eight complaints alleging overcrowding or excessive numbers of cars at what were apparently grouper houses.
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One would never have guessed that atop the laundry-yard fence of the pink house on Marine Boulevard, Amagansett, were the anemometer and weather vane upon which hundreds of New Yorkers had come to rely in recent weeks.
This, then, was disc jockey Ted Brown’s source for those pinpoint Hamptons’ forecasts now heard over radio station WNEW. The David that had slain the Goliath of big-time televised weather forecasters.
25 Years Ago 1998
From The East Hampton Star, September 3
Sighs of relief are expected from South Fork parents beginning on Tuesday as summer vacation ‘98 draws, at long last, to its official end. Public schools will start throwing open their doors that morning to nearly 4,000 students, though Bridgehampton’s are off to an early start — today.
About 1,000 more, from preschool age through grade 10, will start their regular classes at the Montauk School, and local private and parochial schools either on Wednesday, or the following week.
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Although a standoff between the East Hampton Town Trustees and the State Department of Parks and Recreation over beach driving on Napeague continues, all the tickets issued by the state have been dismissed in East Hampton Town Justice Court.
In July, state park police ticketed a total of 21 East Hampton residents for driving on Hither Hills State Park beach, or on an access to the beach, without a state permit.
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“You say tomayto, I say tomahto.”
“Who would have thought tomatoes could taste so different?”
“I’m a tomato lover, so it tastes good no matter.”
“These Cherokee Purple are meant to look like this? I always thought there was something wrong with them!”
These were the sort of lyrical comments emanating from behind the tomato patch of Quail Hill, the organic farm cooperative in Amagansett, on Saturday, at its first Great Tomato Taste-Off.
