125 Years Ago 1901
From The East Hampton Star, June 28
The bathing season begins next Monday, when A.H. Culver’s new bathing pavilion, the largest on Long Island east of Rockaway, will be opened for the summer.
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W.F. Muchmore has in his flower garden on Newtown lane two Midget rose bushes which are a sight to behold. They are in full bloom today and are worth going to see. The blossoms on each bush run well up into the thousands.
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The bicycle path on Ocean avenue in front of W.B. Lockwood’s premises is being improved by the removing of an unpleasant elevation in the path. The dirt so removed is being placed on the sand to extend the path on the west side of the road to the beach.
100 Years Ago 1926
From The East Hampton Star, June 25
The Glorious Fourth will be celebrated in good style throughout the Hamptons. It will be observed here with the usual big fireworks display that night, and both Southampton and Sag Harbor will put over a big carnival. Hampton Bays will see Governor Al Smith, who comes to Canoe Place Inn every summer; he will probably not arrive there until July 9, however, spending a few days there.
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Mrs. Harry Hamlin held an open house at her new-old house, “Rowdy Hall,” at the corner of David’s lane and Egypt lane, recently. A large number of friends called to go over the interesting old place, now filled with early American furniture, which Mrs. Hamlin has been collecting for the past three years, from Colonial villages all over the East.
This house is said to be one of the six oldest homes now standing in East Hampton. It was originally the home of Henry Osborn, who was born in 1762, and stood between the Presbyterian church and the David Huntting Homestead.
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The second fire loss to the Montauk Development Corporation in two months happened yesterday afternoon, at 4 o’clock, when one of the engineers’ bunk houses and their mess hall burned to the ground. Dr. David Edwards, who was in the building, first noticed the fire in the living quarters of the engineers and gave the alarm. The fire is supposed to have been caused by a faulty water heater in the building.
75 Years Ago 1951
From The East Hampton Star, June 28
Mayor Judson L. Banister and Raymond Smith Sr., Village Counsel, attended the 42nd annual meeting of the New York State Conference of Mayors and other municipal officials held at Niagara Falls, N.Y., June 14 to 16. Mayor Banister was the retiring president of the Association.
On June 14, Mayor William R. Lupton, Mayor of Niagara Falls, gave an address of welcome and presented Mayor Banister with keys of the city as President, in the presence of Mayor Corning of Albany and Mayor Mallery of Saratoga Springs. The latter was elected President of the Conference of Mayors for the coming year.
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The Community Council of East Hampton held a meeting Tuesday night and this weekend will send out an appeal for funds with which to carry on its work for the coming year. The fund appeal will be continued for two weeks, from July 2 to 16, and $3,000 is the goal desired to do the work really well.
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Edward E. Bartlett, chairman of the Guild Hall Board of Trustees, and Mrs. Bartlett, gave the reception to open the exhibition “Historical Survey of American Painting” on Friday, June 22. About 150 Guild Hall members and their guests attended.
This outstanding exhibition, the first of its type ever seen here, was assembled by Mrs. Otto L. Spaeth, chairman of the Guild Hall Art Committee. Mrs. Spaeth and the following members of her committee were present at the opening to act as hostesses: Mmes. Valentine E. Macy, Alexander Brook (Gina Knee), Kneeland L. Green, Robert W. Dowling, Philip Barry and Edmund Delaney.
50 Years Ago 1976
From The East Hampton Star, June 24
A rising tide of contradictory opinion flowed into East Hampton yesterday as the Suffolk County Department of Health confirmed its recommendation that ocean beaches from Shinnecock Inlet east to Napeague should be closed, pending the results of laboratory tests on water samples taken Tuesday.
The samples were taken because of reports that debris similar to that that had closed beaches earlier in Nassau County and in Suffolk, from the County line east to Smith’s Point at the eastern tip of Fire Island, had begun arriving in quantity on the South Fork.
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The East Hampton Town Board, in the course of an unusually long meeting Friday morning and afternoon, scheduled a public hearing on the proposed creation of a “senior citizen housing district” for 11 a.m. July 16 but, responding to requests by a number of worried residents, agreed to hold an “informational meeting” on the issue of senior citizen housing beforehand. The informal “listen-in,” as Supervisor Eugene Haas described it, was later scheduled for 7:30 p.m. July 8 in Town Hall.
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Sag Harbor
The Big Weekend: The Old Whalers Festival came off successfully, despite threatening weather, with light rain at times. It was estimated that about 25,000 visitors crowded the streets and Long Wharf. Cars were parked in every available spot. Sag Harbor policemen were assisted by others from East End departments.
The water sports and races came off as scheduled, and a Coast Guard band from Governor’s Island played on Long Wharf as visitors inspected the buoy tender Red Beech.
25 Years Ago 2001
From The East Hampton Star, June 28
When East Hampton Town Councilman Pete Hammerle first got calls at home from a Huntington tree care company offering to spray his property for gypsy moth caterpillars before they killed his trees, he said no thanks. When the same company called him a second time, he was annoyed. “It’s a pretty intense telephone campaign,” Mr. Hammerle said.
But when his neighbors began calling him at work to report that the company was spraying on their street without notifying neighbors, as is required by a new pesticide notification law, he investigated.
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A consultant’s townwide look for any land in East Hampton where recreation facilities could be built — whether the acreage is large, small, privately owned, or preserved — yielded a “top seven” list of properties deemed to have the “best potential and least impact.”
A representative of Land Ethics, the firm hired by the town to conduct the study, presented the report at a meeting of the town’s recreation advisory committee on June 14.
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When the spadefoot toad sings, you know there is a lot of water around, Larry Penny, East Hampton’s natural resources director, said yesterday. And with all that water, the next to sing will be the mosquito.
The toad that brought music to the ears of those who live near wetlands 10 days ago proved this week, as it did last in 1998, to be the herald of a severe infestation of freshwater-breeding mosquitoes, Dominick Ninivaggi, Suffolk County Vector Control’s director, said yesterday.
