125 Years Ago 1901
From The East Hampton Star, August 23
There seem to be as many people in East Hampton this summer as there were last, and those who are qualified to predict say that next summer will be a hummer.
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Mrs. J. Lyon Gardiner, of Gardiner’s Island, with her daughter, Adele, and youngest son, Winthrop, recently sailed for Europe to remain abroad for the coming winter. The engagement of her son Lyon, to Miss Nelly Harjes, of Paris, has been announced. The young lady’s father is of the firm of Drexel, Harjes & Co., and resides in the French capital. Mr. Gardiner and Miss Harjes met while visiting Geo. Childs Drexel, with whom he took a yachting tour last year in European waters.
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Leroy Edwards is out on the street nearly every day with his locomobile. Horse owners hire him to run up and down the street while they accustom their animals to the machine.
100 Years Ago 1926
From The East Hampton Star, August 20
The waters of Great Pond (Lake Montauk) and the Bay were joined this week when the last shovelful of dirt was thrown out. The small opening permitted a rush of water that within fifteen minutes had torn out an opening of several feet. When the work is completed, this harbor will be protected with jetties that will make it a wonderfully protected harbor for craft of all sorts. It is in this Lake Montauk that Carl Fisher hopes to hold the 1927 Gold Cup races, if the Montauk Beach Yacht Club is successful tomorrow at Manhasset Bay with their entries.
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The canning season is now here and the East Hampton Auxiliary of the Southampton Hospital hopes that everyone will remember the increased needs of that institution, and put up a few glasses of jelly or jars of fruit and vegetables, or give even of their surplus of fresh fruits and vegetables to show their appreciation of the benefits received from having a hospital so near at hand.
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The annual Gardiner’s Island race for the one-design knockabouts of the Devon Yacht Club was due to have been sailed on Saturday, but due to a flat calm, it was called off and sailed the following day, Sunday.
There were five boats at the start and they all finished in good time, considering the very light air. The winning boat was sailed by Charles Dickerman and was owned by William H. Woodin. The other members of the crew of this boat were Francis Murray and “Moon” Murray. Great skill was shown by the crew in taking advantage of small puffs during the entire race. The second boat was sailed by Harkness Edwards.
75 Years Ago 1951
From The East Hampton Star, August 23
Electric light and power for a thirty-mile stretch from Bridgehampton to Montauk Point were knocked out at 2:25 p.m. on Saturday when an Air Force fighter plane hit a high tension line. The pilot, Capt. Charles Harting, an Air Force reserve officer from Patchogue, L.I., now attached to the air group at Montauk and living there, was attempting to make a forced landing at the East Hampton Airport. He walked away from the plane unhurt.
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“Oh, what a big fish” a little child called out at Hither Hills State Park, where the water was thick with bathers Sunday afternoon. Lifeguard Al Cotton took one look and blew the alarm whistle and state park patrolman Joseph Henen rushed to the spot with a 12-gauge shotgun. “The big fish” proved to be a 10-foot, 400-pound shark close in-shore among the bathers.
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On Thursday, August 30th, the Edwards Theatre will celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening of the present theatre building. The first show given in the new theatre was “The Last Frontier,” a silent picture starring William Boyd. On the opening night, the speakers were John Drew, famous actor and summer resident of East Hampton, and the late Samuel Gregory, for many years Mayor of East Hampton. At the Silver Anniversary, next Thursday, Mayor Judson L. Banister and others will speak.
50 Years Ago 1976
From The East Hampton Star, August 19
Boys Harbor at Three Mile Harbor will observe its 40th anniversary with a celebration at the camp Saturday, beginning at 4 p.m. The public has been invited to the celebration, which will include entertainment, dancing, and a boating regatta.
The Three Mile Harbor camp site has provided a retreat for the young people who use the Boys Harbor facilities on East 94th Street in Manhattan. In addition to a summer camp, year-round weekend and in-school programs are held there.
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At the recently completed “Paralympics” in Toronto, Canada, John Behan, 31, of Montauk, set a world record in the precision javelin throw, won silver medals in the discus, shotput, and javelin, and a bronze medal in table tennis.
In the precision javelin throw, Mr. Behan made 36 out of a possible 40 points, throwing a javelin nine meters into a bull’s-eye target.
Mr. Behan, who is an East Hampton Town Assessor, said this week that the Paralympics, in which amputees from 45 countries participated, had, like the Olympic Games that proceeded them, been “plagued by politics.” He is a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, in which he lost both legs.
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The Artists-Writers softball game last Sunday, an amalgam of muffed pop flies, infield dribblers, jarring collisions, and occasional brilliance, produced an inconclusive 5-4 win for the Writers, and about $1,000 for East Hampton Year-Round Head Start.
Things got off to a ruminative start at the Herrick Playground, as the critic Clive Barnes weighed the aesthetic qualities of Dr. Joe Wilder’s first pitch, concluding that it was “adequate” as far as pitches went.
25 Years Ago 2001
From The East Hampton Star, August 23
Two strands of opposition to a proposed East Hampton Town ordinance that would eliminate the power of the state to approve construction of erosion-control devices along shorelines here were woven into the fabric of town debate last week. As a result, it seemed unlikely that the new law, discussed during an East Hampton Town Trustee meeting on Aug. 14 and again for more than two hours during a town board public hearing last Thursday, would be adopted anytime soon.
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If the events of recent weeks are any clue, a doozy of a fight is shaping up over the future direction of the vulnerable East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society. One faction takes pride in keeping the greens green, and the trees towering and healthy; the other sees social concerns in a changing community, such as day care for working mothers, as taking priority.
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The number of crows killed in Suffolk County by the West Nile virus mounted dramatically this week, the Suffolk County Health Department has reported. Of 162 crows that tested positive for the virus statewide, 120 have been found in Suffolk. The county has received about 4,000 reports of dead birds so far this year.
In addition, 19 pools containing virus-bearing mosquitoes have been found in Suffolk, including some as far east as Brookhaven.
