Information, News, and features from Montauk Library’s local history collection.
Hunting, gathering, fishing, foraging … early colonists of Montauk took full advantage of the prolific wildlife, but they also did some scavenging on the side. Notwithstanding potentially tragic human loss, shipwrecks provided a big boost to the local economy. Locals used salvaged timber to build fences and fill fireplaces. “Every year about 2,000 loads… Read more »
Montauk’s first Third House was built in 1747 but burned down, then was rebuilt in 1806. It has had many owners and uses in its 278 years, beginning as a home for the keepers of cattle grazing each summer on Montauk’s pastureland. Almost as remote as Montauk Point, the farmhouse was also known as… Read more »
With picnic season in full swing, impress family and friends with local flavors and recipes from the Montauk Library’s collection of community cookbooks. Spice up your picnic invitation with this unique and unusual jest—“Now hie we to the picnic ground. With pies of peach and custard; Where divers snakes meander round, And frolic in the… Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
“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 »
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 »
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 »