The Montauk Air Force Station operated from 1951 to 1981. Previously, the property had been used as a World War II coastal defense station disguised as a coastal fishing village. Subsequently, most was absorbed into Camp Hero State Park or used by the town for affordable housing. Originally from Pennsylvania, Ed Crasky had served as… Read more »
We’re trying something different for this week’s Throwback Thursday — sharing a photograph from our archives that we don’t know much about and asking for your help in identifying or recollecting the people, places, and stories behind the image. What we do know is that this photograph is of a Montauk Community Church variety/talent show,… Read more »
Since 1796, the Montauk Point Lighthouse has served as a navigational aid to mariners, casting light from the land’s end and acting as a signal for the rocky shoreline. In its early years of operation, a lighthouse keeper attended to the whale oil-fueled lanterns, carrying eight lanterns up the interior spiral staircase and lighting the… Read more »
Who lived in Montauk in 1930? The U.S. Census of that year shines light not only on who lived here but also what they did and where they came from. Tuthill, Grimes, Joyce, McDonald, Syvertsen, Paon, Pfund, Duryea, Burke, Martell, Pitts, Tuma, Gilmartin, Briand – many last names reverberate locally almost 100 years later. A… Read more »
“Mrs. Gunnar Strandberg, whose husband was employed at the Willard restaurant, was helping him put boards over the restaurant windows when the storm struck. Unable to get back to her house in the village until the hurricane abated, she was greatly concerned for the safety of her two-year-old infant, who was alone there.” “As soon… Read more »
Did that gentle little boy grow up to be a veterinarian? Did that earnest little girl go on to become a broadcast journalist? We don’t know, but in all likelihood some of the children in these photos – taken by Peggy Joyce in, we believe, the early 1960s, today are the grandparents of Montauk School… Read more »
For over a century, the East End of Long Island has drawn artists from New York City and beyond, inspired by the raw natural beauty of its shorelines, forests, grasslands, glacial moraines, and built structures like saltboxes, windmills, and the Montauk Point lighthouse. In 1940, Victor and Mabel D’Amico, an artist and educator couple from… Read more »
ON VIEW IN THE LOCAL HISTORY CENTER & MAIN LEVEL Surfing in Montauk: A digital display featuring photographs by members of the community Local history room display case: Surfing Memorabilia from the collection of Tony Caramanico Main level display case: Community Surfing Display ON VIEW IN THE TEEN ROOM Endless Oceans: Video art by Sirad… Read more »
A small collection of color and black-and-white aerial photographs of the west side of Lake Montauk is included in the Montauk Library Archives. Because they were taken in the 1970s, prior to many subdivisions and developments in the 1980s and beyond, they could be useful to illustrate what have undoubtedly been shrinking swaths of eelgrass,… Read more »
It was her father’s job with Carl Fisher that moved the family of Edna Sorenson to Montauk in 1927. At first they rented a cottage in the old fishing village on Fort Pond Bay, which was then known simply as “on the beach.” “We spent many happy hours in Fort Pond Bay perfecting our swimming… Read more »