125 Years Ago 1901
From The East Hampton Star, March 15
“The Huntting” was illuminated from basement to attic on Friday evening last while a test was made of the new acetylene gas plant. The brilliant lights sparkling from so many windows attracted the attention of all passers by.
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Arrangements have been completed with Benj. B. Vernon, of New York, who has established a Long Island circuit of the leading theaters, to include East Hampton. A first class company has been engaged and the circuit opens in Glen Cove, March 25, runs two weeks, and ends in Bay Shore, April 6. It is the purpose of the company to play the circuit as often as the business will permit. They will appear at Clinton Hall in East Hampton Wednesday evening, April 3, and will produce the celebrated comedy “A Scrap of Paper.”
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It is stated that the summer timetable of the L.I.R.R. will take effect a month earlier this season, in May instead of June as heretofore, and that the schedule will continue a month later in the fall.
100 Years Ago 1926
From The East Hampton Star, March 12
Now that spring has come and the title has closed on the Carl Fisher property at Montauk Beach, things are beginning to hum from here to Montauk Point. Everyone seems brighter and happier at the prospects for spring and summer and even the hardy old skeptics are beginning to believe that “something is liable to happen.”
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The fire laddies of Company No. 1 of the East Hampton Fire Department held a meeting and dinner last Saturday night at the Fire House that made them all sit up and take notice. John Hand, with sixty-five pounds of beefsteak handled over the hot furnace fire, was, of course, in a large measure responsible for this.
In spite of the fact that several members of the company were absent, there were about fifty present when the mess call sounded at 6:30. It didn’t take long for the boys to discover that something unusual in the way of a firemen’s supper was to be served, for the supper started with oyster cocktail, went on through delicious beefsteak, and ended up with apple pie and ice cream.
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Of great importance to all of East Hampton township is the speech delivered by P.H. Woodward, General Passenger Agent of the Long Island Railroad, last Wednesday, before the members of the Long Island Real Estate Board, at Long Island City. Mr. Woodward, who is a member of this board, spoke before the members at their request, on their subject of eastern Long Island, its advantages and what the Railroad proposes to do to provide transportation for the large increase in traffic anticipated.
75 Years Ago 1951
From The East Hampton Star, March 15
The Service Men’s Recreation Committee here is giving a dance at the Veterans of Foreign Wars building on Main Street at Newtown Lane tomorrow evening, March 16, from 8 to 11 o’clock. Thirty-five or forty men from the base at Montauk have been invited, and an equal number of girls living in this vicinity.
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“On to Mexico” was the topic of Tuesday night’s meeting of the Ramblers. Mrs. Paul F. Nugent showed a series of very beautiful color slides she had made on her recent trip through Mexico, describing the scenes taken in Mexico City, Cuernavaca, Acapulco, and other places, some through the window of the plane in which she and Dr. Nugent were traveling. Miss Edith C. White told in a very lively fashion of a visit she made to Mexico by boat, fifteen years ago; she visited both east and west shores and at the end of her visit to Acapulco, now a fashionable resort, then completely undeveloped, she saw three U.S. cruisers lying offshore with the sailors and Marines all lined up in their white uniforms and Old Glory flying, and said she was thankful to have a clean, healthy country to live in.
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“Home, Sweet Home” will be on the air again, sometime in early April, according to radio visitors at the Payne shrine here on Sunday. Mrs. Ruth Benjamin, curator of the village-owned house, received a call from Philip and Ruth Hunter and friends. The Hunters broadcast every Saturday morning at 10:30 over WOR. The program is presented by the Port of New York Authority, which puts out a little brochure called “Let’s Go and See.”
50 Years Ago 1976
From The East Hampton Star, March 11
Dr. Robert Valenti’s proposed fish farm at Napeague Harbor was plowed under Tuesday evening by the East Hampton Town Trustees. Their refusal to approve the ichthyologist and aquaculturist’s application came after a lively meeting, in the course of which the Trustees’ attorney defended his legal representation of the applicant, and it was revealed that the Trustees had met privately with Dr. Valenti at the home of their — and his — attorney’s father.
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Six County Legislators of Irish heritage feel they have a solution to the problems of Northern Ireland and will say so on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day. Their proposal will take the form of a memorializing resolution calling on the British government to withdraw its troops from Ireland, the United Nations to install a peace-keeping force in their place, and for the United States government to create a committee to help find a permanent solution to the troubles in Ireland.
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Three rarely performed American comedies of the 18th and 19th centuries, as adapted for the contemporary musical stage by Anthony Stimac, will be presented at Guild Hall this summer in an unusual John Drew Theater season devoted to the Bicentennial.
Enez Whipple, executive director of Guild Hall, and Irving Markowitz and Jerome Minskoff, co-chairmen of its drama committee, announced this week that Mr. Stimac had been signed as artistic director for an eight-week season to include the three historical musicals and a new production.
25 Years Ago 2001
From The East Hampton Star, March 15
“Modern 4 BR/3 ba w/pool, A/C, cble, BBQ, maid, frplc & cool art. Nr. town & bch. Fun mid 30s prof’l grp. . . . $2,500 1/2 share.”
Ah, summer. No matter that vestiges of the last snowstorm are still visible, the hot weekends of 2001 loom. And for single city people Hamptons share houses, like this one in the East Hampton’s Northwest Woods, are as ripe as ever for the taking.
Shares, you say? Legal in East Hampton?
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The East Hampton School District’s search for land for new athletic fields could be over. After looking at several parcels in the Long Lane and Cedar Street area, the East Hampton School Board voted on March 6 to sign a lease-purchase agreement for 34.5 acres directly across the street from the high school on Long Lane.
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“It requires a lot of work, flexibility, some grace, and definitely strength,” said Meg Priess when asked about the requisites of synchronized swimming, a sport that may seem easy to some spectators, but isn’t.
Just ask Melissa Drumm, an East Hampton High School ninth grader and new convert, along with two of her fellow Montaukers, Morgan DeMasco and Noelle Wetzel.
