125 Years Ago 1901
From The East Hampton Star, July 26
The sum of $535 has been subscribed toward the fund for dredging the channel of Three-Mile Harbor. The paper is in the hands of J.T. Gardiner.
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The annual fair, cake and ice cream sale of the L.V.I.S. will take place next Thursday, August 7, afternoon and evening, and the friends who anticipate contributing articles for the same will confer a great favor by sending their contributions to the managers, Mrs. J.D. Hedges and Mrs. E.H. Dayton, or to the heads of committees, as soon as possible, and each member of the society is requested to be present at the hall Wednesday afternoon early, to assist in decorating and other preparations. Each one is also required to bring a loaf of cake Thursday afternoon.
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The large catalpa tree in George Hand’s yard, formerly the Lyman Beecher place, was in full bloom this week, and with its top limbs high above the house and its lower branches sweeping the lawn it made a striking and handsome picture.
100 Years Ago 1926
From The East Hampton Star, July 23
The L.V.I.S. annual fair on the village green, the big event of each summer, when village folk and visitors meet and work together for an ever more beautiful East Hampton, begins at 3 this afternoon, and ends with the evening entertainment and dance in the High School auditorium this evening.
New features for the fair have developed every day.
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A large party, composed largely of the medical profession, started off last Saturday in search of sword-fish, on board Captain Sam Edwards’ boat, the Magdalene, but had no luck, on account of the terrible weather. They report, however, that they had a very excellent outing.
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The East Hampton Fire Department is to have a new up-to-date piece of fire-fighting apparatus. It will be a Reo six-cylinder one and a half ton speed truck with special hose truck body. Order for the new truck, which is to replace the old Dodge hose truck used by Company 3 for several years, was placed at the meeting of the village board.
75 Years Ago 1951
From The East Hampton Star, July 26
Captain Norman Edwards of Amagansett is in the Southampton Hospital with burns on his hands and arms up to the elbows and lesser burns about the face, from an explosion on board his 110-foot fishing boat the Edith Hudgins moored at the Edwards Brothers dock at Promised Land. The accident occurred about ten o’clock Tuesday morning. People who have seen the damage done the boat say that Captain Edwards is lucky to be alive.
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For the fourth week of an eight-week season Philip Barry Jr., executive director of the John Drew Theatre of Guild Hall, will present Carol Bruce in the famous Rodgers and Hart musical comedy “Pal Joey.” It is of special interest that John O’Hara, who wrote the book for the show, is in residence in Westhampton Beach and will help direct the show during its East Hampton run.
Like all Rodgers and Hart shows, “Pal Joey” produced several hit tunes, among them “I Could Write a Book” and “Bewitched.” Its characters are the “guys and dolls” who make up the shadier sector of Chicago’s vast population.
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The preview and reception which opened three new art exhibitions at Guild Hall, planned by Mrs. Otto L. Spaeth, chairman of the art committee, on Friday, July 20, was a colorful occasion, well attended by members of Guild Hall, exhibiting artists, and art critics.
The reception, given by Mrs. Foster Milliken, took place in the Moran Gallery, where the exhibition “Frankly Romantic” is on display. Hostesses included Mrs. Valentine E. Macy and Mrs. Edmund Delaney of the art committee, and Mmes. Edward E. Bartlett, Samuel Davis, E.E. Anderson, Jane Wasey, and Arline Wingate.
50 Years Ago 1976
From The East Hampton Star, July 22
The economy of Sag Harbor, always a little on the lean side since the end of the great days of whaling, is fattening up lately on boatloads of Connecticut tourists.
Four days a week since June 26, the 94-foot excursion vessel Yankee Clipper has been docking at Long Wharf, her decks crowded with day trippers from the Nutmeg State eager to spend some time and money in the historic whaling port across the Sound.
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President Martin Van Buren, according to County Legislator Joyce Burland, was once described by a critic as a man who had “never been known to row towards his objective with muffled oars.” Mrs. Burland said so at the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee’s “campaign kick-off cocktail party,” which did not take place at the Town Marine Museum Sunday afternoon, because the Town Board had convened a ten-minute “special meeting” Friday morning to pass the following resolution:
“RESOLVED, that the Town Board is authorized to engage Edward Horne [a local lawyer] to restrain the use of Town property for political purposes, specifically to restrain the use of the Amagansett Marine Museum for purposes of a political get together to kick off the campaign for election of Larry Cantwell for Town Councilman and Don Willing for Town Assessor, and to pay Mr. Horne reasonable compensation for his services.”
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Fourth-place Schenck’s Fuel took on seventh-place Busy Hands to lead off the games in the East Hampton Men’s Softball League last week. The game between Schenck’s and Busy Hands was a close one for a while. Then, Schenck’s got 13 hits, scored nine runs, and beat Busy Hands, 11-1. Hugh King’s four hits in four at-bats led Schenck’s batters, while Bruce Hawthorne’s two hits and one run batted in led Busy Hands’ batters.
25 Years Ago 2001
From The East Hampton Star, July 26
The prosecution in the second trial of Stuart Vorpahl of East Hampton on a charge of fishing without state licenses won a partial victory on June 22 when a County Court judge agreed to a change of venue, ruling that media coverage had tainted the objectivity of potential East Hampton Town jurors. County Judge Gary Weber called the coverage of Mr. Vorpahl’s first trial, in 1999, “excessive and unfair.”
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During her first appearance on the South Fork since voters here helped her win a United States Senate seat, Hillary Rodham Clinton promised a crowd of some 400 cheering onlookers in Sag Harbor Saturday to fight for millions of federal dollars to protect eastern Long Island’s bay waters and farmlands.
“The economy, the environment, and our health have to be looked at together,” Senator Clinton said, turning past a bipartisan panel of state, county, and local politicians to the blue waters off Marine Park that sparkled that morning under a cloudless sky.
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After a decade of deliberations, at least one aspect of East Hampton Town’s yet-to-be-enacted Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan appears close to realization. If the proposal becomes law, it will make the town the sole arbiter over erosion control projects along its entire 110-mile coastline, a role now shared with both the State Department of Environmental Conservation and the East Hampton Town Trustees.
