125 Years Ago 1901
From The East Hampton Star, November 15
Will all contributors to the Ladies’ Needlework Guild please forward their gifts as speedily as possible. There are some urgent calls and they should receive prompt attention. — Mrs. E.H. Cartwright
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Tiring of the Federal government’s procrastination in appropriating funds for the improvement of Three Mile Harbor, private citizens who recognize the benefits to East Hampton that will accrue by the establishment of a channel through the bar and gutway at the harbor’s mouth have raised sufficient money to dredge and pile each side of the narrow entrance from Gardiner’s bay, and now sailing vessels pass through without waiting for a rising tide. Harrison Tuthill, of New Suffolk, is doing the work, which progresses most favorably.
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The Ladies’ Village Improvement society will issue a newspaper at Clinton Hall tonight, and incidentally give a fine entertainment.
The various departments of the paper, the editorials, the society news, the story page, music, illustrations, advertising, etc., will be looked after by members of the society, and will include recitations, solos, duets, tableaux and a liberal sprinkling of fun.
100 Years Ago 1926
From The East Hampton Star, November 12
The town board met in special session last Friday afternoon to consider two propositions, one made by the Montauk Beach Development Corporation regarding a change of the present route near Fort Pond, on Montauk Highway, and the other made by the Long Island Lighting Co. to maintain two street lights near Fort Pond, Montauk.
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A clash between youth and age featured the housewarming held at Bellport Saturday night at the home of Dr. Silas Rogers Corwith, 66-year-old physician, who last Sunday married 18-year-old Viola Alter. The climax of the party was reached early Sunday morning and resulted in the attempted kidnaping of the young bride by some of the younger blades of the village as a protest against the elderly doctor’s attempts to put a damper on the Jazz Age hilarity. The housewarming ended in a general housecleaning of all guests, the retreat being in command of the village constable, acting under instructions from the host.
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The report of the sale of “The Orchards,” long one of Southampton’s show places, for a price said to be upward of $300,000, and the actual filing of deeds showing numerous other very large deals in Suffolk County real estate, lead the brokers to feel that there is to be an exceedingly healthy wintertime activity throughout the entire county and especially on the East End.
75 Years Ago 1951
From The East Hampton Star, November 15
There will be a celebration of Holy Communion at St. Luke’s Church on Thanksgiving Day at 8 a.m. conducted by the Rector.
The three Protestant Churches will join together for a Union Service of Thanksgiving to be held at the Methodist Church at 10 a.m. The sermon will be delivered by the Rev. Samuel Davis, Rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Mulford will play a piano and organ prelude, “Finlandia” by Sibelius.
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“Two gents by the turkey wing, give each other a great big swing. Opposite lady with a pigeon wing, gents go back with a turkey wing.”
This square dance call may sound like Greek to the uninitiated, but it’s simple for the regular Guild Hall Country Dance Club members who have, by now, quite an extensive repertoire of square and folk dances to their credit.
In three or four lessons, according to Frank Dayton, president of the Country Dance Club, a beginner with no experience whatsoever can learn the calls and steps and be able to join in the fun with the “old hands.”
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The four churches of East Hampton, St. Philomena’s Roman Catholic, St. Luke’s Episcopal, the First Presbyterian and the Methodist, are asking their children to bring canned goods and other unperishable food with them to Church this Sunday, Nov. 18th. The food will then be sorted by members of the Community Council of East Hampton and distributed in baskets to the less privileged families of the community. Anyone wishing to participate in this project may bring food to any of the churches or to the V.F.W. building by Monday night.
50 Years Ago 1976
From The East Hampton Star, November 11
An entrepreneur who runs a motel on the shore of Fort Pond Bay, Montauk, says he has at last given up trying to build a 135-boat marina on his property and is planning to build an aquarium instead. Meanwhile another entrepreneur has been advertising what appears to be an adjacent shorefront property as “an ideal location for any firm involved directly or indirectly in offshore drilling.” But local officials maintain zoning would prevent its use by any such firm.
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A Long Island Lighting Company official testified this week that almost 80 percent of Riverhead Town’s taxes will be paid by the utility if and when its two nuclear plants planned for Jamesport begin operation in the mid-1980s.
Speaking at the resumption of Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing hearings in Riverhead Tuesday, Matthew C. Cordaro, LILCO’s manager of environmental engineering, told Federal examiners that without the plants, and with a continuing decline in tax rolls, many area farmers would be forced out of business because of increases in taxes.
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Two young singers from the Juilliard Opera Center transformed the John Drew Theater of Guild Hall into a mini-Met last Saturday night.
Roberta Palmer, soprano, and Cesar Antonio Suarez, in a program in which each alternated as soloists and joined forces for duets, each communicated a genuine operatic atmosphere, so much so that you could close your eyes and almost see the stage and costumes.
25 Years Ago 2001
From The East Hampton Star, November 15
Stephen Peters doesn’t think of Sag Harbor’s Old Burying Ground as a morbid place. Instead, it’s “like a history book,” he said. “You can learn a lot.”
In the last three and a half years, Mr. Peters and a committee he chairs have worked voluntarily to restore the centuries-old site to its historical and cultural past. After decades of vandalism and neglect, “No one cared so we said, ‘Hey, let’s fix it,’ ” he said.
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Before Sept. 11, the doors of the Montauk Coast Guard station were always open to the public. Two months later, the gate in the metal fence that encloses the station and its grounds is locked, and visitors are met by a guard. Permission to pass is given via a hand-held radio, but not before identification is shown. These troubled days, even Chief Petty Officer Dennis Endicott, the commanding officer of the station, must show his ID each and every time he enters the gate.
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A member of the East Hampton Town Board yesterday called for the town to suspend its comprehensive plan process, which has been going on for the past 18 months and has cost at least $180,000 to date, and bring in an entirely new planning firm.
“I don’t like the way the process is going,” said Councilman Job Potter, who was re-elected last week to his second term. “I think we need to schedule a public discussion on it.”
