Local History

Information, News, and features from Montauk Library’s local history collection.

Throwback Thursday — Dialing MP

Throwback Thursday — Dialing MP

  This post originally ran on January 3, 2024. It has been updated with additional photographs. Montaukers of a certain age may recollect some of the people and places in this chamber directory. They might even remember using a two-letter telephone exchange prefix: MP for Montauk Point, for example. The directory comes from a collection of… Read more »

Throwback Thursday – Fabric of the Community

Throwback Thursday – Fabric of the Community

This past weekend, relics of Montauk’s history representing the fabric of our community were displayed at the Arts Center at Duck Creek’s Airing of the Quilts. Three quilts from the Montauk Library’s collection were exhibited outdoors alongside baby blankets, contemporary textile artworks, heirlooms, and historical pieces created or inherited by community members across the East… Read more »

Throwback Thursday — Help!

Throwback Thursday — Help!

Does anyone know who these sun-bonneted belles might be? The photograph was most likely taken between 1970 and 1980. The photographer was Ray Smith (1905-2004), who moved east after a career in high fashion and advertising, including a stint with a lucrative Ex-Lax campaign. He set about chronicling a much simpler community here in Montauk,… Read more »

Throwback Thursday – Mad About Shad

What’s not to love about shad trees, which have graced the Montauk skyline for the past few weeks with their gorgeous white tufts? There are four species of shadbush growing in Montauk, one of which is very rare. The shadbush is a member of the rose family that goes by many other names: shadblow, shadwood,… Read more »

Throwback Thursday — A Century of Milestones

Throwback Thursday — A Century of Milestones

  “Ms. Crasky’s long life was chronicled in the pages of The Star,” the East Hampton weekly noted in its obituary for Josephine Crasky after her death, at age 101, in April of this year. The obituary listed a number of examples: “an announcement of the Amagansett School’s 1939 commencement exercises, a 1942 note about… Read more »

Throwback Thursday – Home Movie Matinee

  A large billboard reading “Welcome to Montauk, America’s Outstanding Summer Resort,” greeted tourists as they arrived for the summer of 1947. The Montauk Surf Club and Pool parking lot was full of coupes and station wagons that delivered travelers to the seaside retreat. Guests loafed around in the public pool, while others enjoyed the cabanas… Read more »

Throwback Thursday — Montauk Place Names

Throwback Thursday — Montauk Place Names

  Montauk, or Manatacut, or Meuntacut, or Montaukut, is thought to come from an Indigenous word for “fort country.”  The word suggests a lookout, most likely from on high and far away, as at Fort Hill, which European settlers also called “New Fort” and today is the home of Fort Hill Cemetery. Formerly the site… Read more »

Throwback Thursday – National Library Week

Throwback Thursday – National Library Week

National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association and libraries nationwide. It was established in 1958 with the theme “Wake Up and Read.” This year’s theme is “Drawn to the Library,” celebrating what draws people into the library. Before 1980, Montauk had no library to draw people in. Library services… Read more »

Throwback Thursday — A Spot with a View

Throwback Thursday — A Spot with a View

  The contemplative young woman in this postcard turns out to be Diane Duca Delprete, now 78 and living in New Jersey. She was about 13 or 14 when the photograph was taken in the 1950s, one of three decades when her family would spend two weeks each summer camping at Hither Hills State Park…. Read more »

Throwback Thursday – The Lost Estate

Throwback Thursday – The Lost Estate

Imagine driving up a meandering dirt driveway lined with ornamental trees, a horse-riding track on your left, a watchtower home to a fancier of pigeons on your right, greenhouses stocked with tropical plants, and a private zoo replete with gazelles and peacocks, all surrounding a Spanish-Moor-styled estate. Does this sound like Montauk?  While contemporary estates… Read more »