125 Years Ago 1901
From The East Hampton Star, April 26
When you hear the oldest inhabitant say he never saw so much wet weather at one time before, just tell him that during the month of April in 1874 the rainfall was 7.2 inches.
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East Hampton’s health record for the past winter has been remarkable. There have been fewer deaths in this town during the last six months than during any previous winter for many years. The record for the whole year past is excellent, the percentage of deaths being far below the average for towns of this size.
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The Ramblers will hold their next meeting at the home of Miss Ettie Hedges on Tuesday evening. The subject is France but as all the papers on Switzerland could not be given last week, they will be read at this meeting.
100 Years Ago 1926
From The East Hampton Star, April 23
Mr. and Mrs. Austin Culver are starting out, June 25, on the first summer vacation they have had in thirty-four years. They will tour in their car, wherever the fancy strikes them, for four months; probably including the White Mountains in their trip, and spending a few weeks of it with Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Clifford and their family.
Tyson Dominy, who has been acting as caretaker for the Sea Spray Realty Corporation this winter, overseeing their newly acquired Sea Spray Hotel and the bathing pavilion formerly belonging to Mr. Culver, will manage the bathing business for the new owners.
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At the invitation of the Lions Club, A.R. Wolfe, the Scout Leader for all of Suffolk county, visited East Hampton this week for the purpose of going over the plan of backing up the local Boy Scout movement with the business men of the city. The Lions Club had already arranged a committee to co-operate with the Boy Scouts and the committee is made up as follows: Ralph Frood, chairman; Felix Dominy, I.Y. Halsey, Dr. David Edwards, N.N. Tiffany, A.E. Rattray, Benjamin Barnes, Welby Boughton.
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Beautiful Shinnecock Hills were ravaged by fire on Tuesday afternoon. Three big houses, four garages and approximately 1,000 acres of land were reduced to ashes. The fire started just after the 3 o’clock west bound train had passed; it was thought that sparks from that train had caught on dry leaves, which are so much tinder after all this dry weather; then, with a high wind blowing, the blaze swept right across Montauk Highway.
75 Years Ago 1951
From The East Hampton Star, April 26
As a starter toward a fund for a much-needed new grand piano for Guild Hall, two talented East Hampton musicians, Joan Rothman Brill (Mrs. Robert Brill) and Genevieve Greene (Mrs. Faye Greene) have offered to give a two-piano recital in the John Drew Theatre on May 18.
Both are former Juilliard School of Music students and have done concert work.
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Approximately 40 children suffering from rheumatic heart disease will be placed in foster homes in East Hampton, Sag Harbor, Southampton and Bridgehampton, and other towns in the Hampton area this summer, according to plans announced at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Foundation held Thursday, April 19th, in New York City at RCA’s Johnny Victor Theater in Rockefeller Center.
This will be the 11th year of operation of the Foundation’s Hampton Project, founded by Dr. H. Laurence Dowd, a New York pediatrician who has summered in East Hampton for many years.
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The next dance for the service men will be held Friday, April 27, from 8 to 11 p.m. at St. Luke’s parish house. The dance will be sponsored by St. Luke’s Men’s Club with the Women’s Auxiliary as co-chairmen. Harry Parsons, William LeVesconte, Miss Eleanor Tingley, chairman of the Ladies’ Auxiliary, Mrs. Harry Parsons and Mrs. Adrian Bennett will be in charge.
50 Years Ago 1976
From The East Hampton Star, April 22
The Long Island Lighting Company got the State Public Service’s permission last week to add a “demand charge,” step by step over a five-year period, to the electricity bills of motel owners and other heavy customers even when their electrical service is disconnected during the winter. The East Hampton Town Board hired a lawyer Friday “to institute an action against the Public Service Commission and the Long Island Lighting Company to reverse this decision.”
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At a businesslike meeting Friday morning, the East Hampton Town Board provided, among other things, that scrap metal at the dumps will again be recycled. It has not been since Highway Superintendent John Bistrian, who used to run the dumps in his alter ego of Public Works Superintendent, quarreled a year ago with the scrap metal dealer who was buying it, Frank Franza of Farmingdale.
Mr. Bistrian charged that Mr. Franza was taking away more metal than he was paying for, but Mr. Franza maintained that the containers he was taking away contained mostly dirt, and that he was indeed paying for all the metal in them. Both men conducted weighing tests which they said proved they were right.
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Critics of East Hampton Town’s $55,000 ballfield project at Maidstone Park — and its supporters, if there are any — will have a chance to speak their minds Tuesday. Supervisor Eugene Haas has scheduled a “listen-in” on the controversy at 7:30 that evening in Town Hall. The critics, who included 27 of the Park’s neighbors, had objected particularly to what they saw as the Town’s failure to consult the public before starting work.
25 Years Ago 2001
From The East Hampton Star, April 26
According to a contract now under final review by the East Hampton Town Board, LTV not only will continue to provide a public access on Channel 70 with a subsidy from the town, but also will establish a second channel for educational and governmental programming, as required by the Federal Communications Commission.
Under the terms of the agreement, the not-for-profit cable programmer would begin to receive a larger share of the franchise fee paid by Cablevision to the town once the second station is on the air.
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In sight of newly plowed fields, next to a cemetery and two doors down from the Wainscott Chapel, Wainscott’s small shingled school, one of the last one-room schoolhouses in New York State, is a reminder of another era, a time when potato fields stretched to the horizon and the hamlet’s farm families outnumbered summer residents.
Now, though, both inside and out, the signs of change are undeniable. Where once there were so few students that some feared for the future of the school, Wainscott’s enrollment, like those of its larger South Fork neighbors, is growing by the year.
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Less is more was the strong message conveyed to state officials by about 50 Montauk residents during a two-hour discussion on Monday night at Montauk Downs about the development of Camp Hero State Park. The officials said they agreed, at least in the short term.
Tom Lyons, director of environmental management in State Parks, told the audience that the Parks Department was in the first cleanup phase of a years-long effort to make “the best possible use” of the park’s 400 acres.
