125 Years Ago 1900
From The East Hampton Star, October 26
St. Luke’s church was closed for the season on Sunday morning last. During the summer that church has had large and attentive congregations and excellent music. The choir has been under the direction of the Rev. J. Nevett Steele, Mus. Doc. of Trinity Church, New York. Several visiting clergy have kindly assisted at various times in the services.
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Wednesday was a warm summer day with the thermometer registering above 70 in the shade. It was all right for those fortunate enough to ride out through the lanes and woods, but oppressive for those obliged to stick to their daily routine of work indoors.
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T.A. Brouwer Jr. is about to build a new and much larger shop for the manufacture of his pottery. The new building will have a furnace room in which will be placed two or more ovens of Mr. Brouwer’s own design, a laboratory and modeling room and an office. The furnaces will be supplied with superheated draft flues through which currents of heated air will be forced by power from a gasoline engine.
100 Years Ago 1925
From The East Hampton Star, October 23
Otto H. Kahn, it was authoritatively learned recently, is the lessee of the handsome and extensive waterfront tract at Fireplace Point, this town, owned by Hudson V. Griffin of Riverhead, and his brother, William W. Griffin of Greenport.
The tract, which contains 678 acres of land and ponds and also has an extensive forest of very large trees upon it, has a long frontage on Gardiner’s Bay.
Mr. Kahn takes the property under a lease for fifteen years, paying, it is understood, a large annual rental.
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That East Hampton is willing to go it alone on fighting the mosquito pest in the township is shown by a summary of the appropriations already expended in that direction. In the last ten years, East Hampton has appropriated and spent about $10,000 in draining the swamps and mosquito breeding holes. Added to this amount is $30,000, which Richmond Levering of Devon privately subscribed and spent in draining property on Napeague Beach and about Devon, thus the sum of $40,000 has been used in warring on the mosquito pest, and in the judgment of many residents, the fight has been beneficial.
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The Fowler Sea Products Company, which has just about completed its Montauk plant, is planning to start operations next month. Work on the construction of the new pier in front of the factory is now in progress. The destructive storm recently held up this work considerably as the lighter with timbers for the pier sunk at the railroad dock, and the lumber was strewn along the beach. Another lighter is now being used.
In this issue of the Star the company is advertising for several men, including a wharf man, fish filleters and trimmers, shipping clerk, fireman, watchman and clerk. Evidently this company is going to fill its positions with local help if possible, which is commendable.
75 Years Ago 1950
From The East Hampton Star, October 26
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has recommended that Long Island farmers reduce potato acreage by 27 percent in 1951, whereas the national average recommended cut is only 15 percent. Suffolk County Farm Bureau Chairman Amherst W. Davis takes issue on this.
He says that he agrees that Long Island should plant less in 1951, but that cutting nearly twice as much as the national average is unfair.
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The Suffolk County Office of Civil Defense in its advance planning for Atomic Disaster Defense has recommended to all school authorities in the County that the children remain in the school when the alarm indicating an imminent attack is sounded. The pupils will be moved to the safest area in the building in the immediate supervision of the teachers. The children will be held in the school until the enemy action has been determined.
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Guild Hall Players, under the direction of Robert Reutershan, are rehearsing for a one-act comedy to be presented at the next meeting on Monday, Nov. 6, in the John Drew Theatre. Over a hundred Players attended the first meeting of the season on Monday, Oct. 2. A cordial invitation to join is extended to all who are interested in any phase of play production — acting, designing and building scenery, costuming, and helping with business details.
50 Years Ago 1975
From The East Hampton Star, October 23
The East Hampton Town Board decided Friday to sue the Long Island Lighting Company, whose “ratchet clause” had shocked local businessmen. The board also heard a spectator charge that the Town Highway Department was putting topsoil on private property and paving private roads, a charge that Highway Superintendent John Bistrian and Supervisor Judith Hope, both Democrats, dismissed as politically timed distortions.
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With less than two weeks left until voters pull the election levers, East Hampton Town Democrats and Republicans squared off in court this morning over the question of how many levers the voters will have to choose among.
At issue is whether the Democratic candidates, from Town Supervisor to Bay Constable, will appear on the ballot as an Independence Party slate as well.
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“The end of an epoch” is how the death of Sara Murphy was characterized by Mrs. Ellen Semple Barry, widow of the playwright Philip Barry and one of about 50 persons who were present at memorial services on Oct. 17 in St. Luke’s Church for the longtime friend of artists and writers here and abroad.
Mrs. Murphy died on Oct. 10 at the age of 91 in an Arlington hospital near the McLean, Va., residence of her daughter, Honoria Donnelly, who had cared for her mother during her 10-year illness. Her husband, Gerald Murphy, a painter whose work was shown last year at the Museum of Modern Art and in San Francisco and Dallas, died in 1964.
25 Years Ago 2000
From The East Hampton Star, October 26
After some fits and starts, the East Hampton Town Board is apparently ready to unanimously adopt a resolution next week outlining what it has already done to protect the town’s groundwater, and what it plans to do in the future.
But board members could not resist the opportunity for more partisan sniping on the issue at Tuesday’s work session.
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Although other candidates were on hand Sunday for the traditional pre-election forum sponsored by the Concerned Citizens of Montauk, it was the Congressional contestants, the Democrat Regina Seltzer of Bellport and the Republican Felix Grucci Jr. of East Patchogue, who dominated.
The two disagreed on several issues and went head-to-head during their allotted rebuttal time. Some 150 constituents were in the audience.
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One big difference between East Hampton’s oldest residents and some of its newcomers was obvious on Sunday as many of those participating in the History Project, a collection of oral histories, arrived at Ruschmeyer’s restaurant in Montauk on time.
“Bonackers are not fashionably late,” Tony Prohaska, director of the three-year effort, observed wryly. Dozens of his subjects-turned-friends walked into the restaurant at 12:30 p.m., the appointed hour exactly.
