125 Years Ago 1901
From The East Hampton Star, August 9
F.S. Stratton has finished taking the school census for the year, and finds the total number of children of school age in Union School District No. 1 to be 317, three less than given in the enumeration of last year.
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To facilitate the giving of an alarm in case of fire a key to the Presbyterian church has been placed in a glass case at the entrance to the church. Any person discovering a fire can break the glass, take the key, enter the church and ring the bell. It is obvious that the key is not to be touched except in case of fire, and anyone caught removing it from its place for any other purpose will be punished by law.
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The Vernon Stock Co. will produce a new comedy, “The Working Man,” Thursday evening, August 15, at Clinton Hall. Several new people have been engaged to produce this play, and all may be sure of a pleasant evening with this deserving company. Seats are on sale at S.A. Gregory & Co.’s.
100 Years Ago 1926
From The East Hampton Star, August 6
A book about East Hampton, by the Hon. Samuel Seabury, in which is included a pictorial and historical record of the pageant celebrating the two hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the town, which was written by Miss Abigail Halsey, is soon to appear.
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Dr. Robert W. Wood, professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University and one of the world’s authorities on high frequency sound waves, returned last week from a six weeks’ motor trip through England, France and Holland, to spend the remainder of the summer at his country home on Apaquogue road. Accompanying Dr. Wood on this trip was his friend and co-worker in scientific research, A.L. Loomis, who is treasurer of the New York banking firm of Bonbright & Company, as well as being an interested physicist, maintaining a well equipped laboratory at Tuxedo, where he and Dr. Wood do a great deal of their work.
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Kenneth Davis, supervisor of East Hampton township, was taken very suddenly with appendicitis on Friday afternoon of last week. At 6 the doctor was called; at 9 Mr. Davis was being operated on at the Southampton Hospital. He is reported to be recovering nicely.
75 Years Ago 1951
From The East Hampton Star, August 9
There was great excitement last Thursday afternoon at the little new Dowling village east of the Maidstone Club when an elephant came ashore in the surf. It was a very dead elephant, a fairly small specimen, and somewhat chewed up by sharks. Village police were called to the scene and eventually the elephant was returned to the depths of the sea.
There was a great deal of joking around the Maidstone Club afterward about the pink elephant with the green velvet tail and The Star was inclined to doubt the existence of the elephant, but Chief of Police Richard Steele assures us that it was no joke.
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A gay, informal Variety Show, with Robert Montgomery, distinguished actor, as master of ceremonies, will be presented as a benefit for Guild Hall, in the John Drew Theatre for one night only, Sun., Aug. 19, at 8:40 p.m. Mrs. Russell C. Bennett, chairman of the Guild Hall Drama Committee, is in charge of arrangements.
Eddie Dowling, who will be here next week in “Border Be Damned,” will be featured in humorous theatrical anecdotes, and a group of talented Broadway and TV entertainers — dancers, singers, comedians — have been especially engaged for the show.
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Weekend fishing off Montauk and weekday fishing off S.W. Shoals at Block Island, while the Fort Hero Coast Artillery is active, remain exceptionally good.
Tuna, sea bass, porgies, an occasional large fluke, and cod have been caught during the week.
50 Years Ago 1976
From The East Hampton Star, August 5
The South Fork Transportation Task Force, at a long and businesslike meeting last Thursday, began to make plans for a questionnaire, which will be handed through the windows of automobiles, asking drivers where they are going and where they came from.
The committee has been supplied with many statistics by such governmental agencies as the State Transportation Department, which routinely counts the number of vehicles passing various points on Route 27 at various times. At an earlier meeting when some of these figures were recited, however, it was felt that information about the nature of the traffic, rather than about its quantity, which was obvious anyway, would be more useful to the committee’s task of finding ways to expedite and reduce traffic.
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Suffolk County Legislators met Tuesday and approved the hiring of additional professional and clerical mental health personnel to increase services on the East End. They also overrode an executive veto of a measure to create a mental health services program at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital.
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“Mostly Dune,” the Lily Pond Lane estate that serves as a summertime retreat in East Hampton for the Manhattan School of Music, will be the scene Saturday night of “An Hour of Music.”
The program will be presented by four of the school’s students and alumni. They are Sonia Vargas, a Peruvian pianist; her husband, Samuel Marder, a violinist; Mercedes Alicea, a soprano; and Craig Nolan, her accompanist.
Miss Vargas has been at Mostly Dune this week working with a group of students on piano literature and ensemble repertoire. She has just returned from a tour of the Soviet Union and she and her husband have made extensive recital tours of South America.
25 Years Ago 2001
From The East Hampton Star, August 9
A petition urging East Hampton Town officials to “take action and bring under control the situation of illegal immigrants” is causing consternation among civic leaders and others while the man who initiated it says he has collected 100 signatures from residents here and expects to get more.
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St. Peter’s Chapel on Old Stone Highway in Springs, which was founded in 1881 as the nondenominational East Side Free Chapel, will celebrate its 120th anniversary on Saturday with a service and party.
“It has so many close memories. It’s amazing what a little chapel can do,” said Jane Maxey, the head of the chapel’s Ladies Guild. Mrs. Maxey’s family has been attending services at the chapel since its beginning. “We’ve come a long way,” said Winifred Denton, Ms. Maxey’s mother, who has been going to services there for 84 years.
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The seven days from July 29 through Aug. 5 marked a new high for auto accidents on East Hampton Town and Village roads as 58 different collisions tied up summer traffic. Ten persons were injured.
The most dramatic accident occurred yesterday morning on Main Street in East Hampton Village when a full cement mixer from a company called Unlimited Cement of Medford drove off the road and flipped onto its side at Town Pond. It was the second time this summer that a cement truck from the company had overturned in East Hampton. The earlier accident occurred on July 23 on Napeague.
