Information, News, and features from Montauk Library’s local history collection.
Photo collage of Book Fair volunteers, ca. 1996-1998: Starting in the top left-hand corner: Mary (last name unknown), Angela Lambriola, Robert Schorr, Christine Langerfeld, Judith Rade, Bob Mautschke, June (last name unknown), Charlotte Schorr, Eileen Mautschke, Doris and Frank Donahue, Suzanne Gosman, and Elaine Kahn Photograph of Bob-e Metzger, Chairperson of the Friends’ Book Fair, looking over boxes in the storage area… Read more »
This week’s Throwback Thursday is a tribute to the children of Fort Pond Bay Village. The Bay was their frontage and the train tracks their backyard boundary. Nothing, however, could restrict these kids from exploring the larger world around them. This image from around 1938 comes from the Pitts-Burke-Cullum collection, a large group of photographic… Read more »
As the school year draws to a close, everyone looks forward to passing their exams and moving up another grade level. Especially seniors! (Or in the case of Montauk School graduates, 8th-graders.) Graduation ceremonies bring celebration and a sense of freedom. Before graduation, however, there’s the school trip. Its itinerary is usually structured around an… Read more »
The annual Blessing of the Fleet became part of Montauk culture after Vinny Grimes witnessed a similar ceremony during his tenure with the U.S. Navy. In 1955, the Montauk community supported Grimes’ idea of creating a blessing ceremony for fishermen’s vessels. On June 7, 1956, the East Hampton Star ran a notice alerting the public… Read more »
If Montauk ever produced a Renaissance man, it was Richard T. Gilmartin. An insurance businessman who entered politics and fought for people with disabilities, he loved history and surfcasting and shared his passion for both. Richard Gilmartin had started writing a history of Montauk when he died suddenly in 1964. The loss of Gilmartin’s knowledge base was like… Read more »
The Memorial Day weekend is upon us, which means the unofficial start of the summer season has begun. This picture radiates positive energy, and seems a good omen for Summer 2021. Will the era of social distancing finally come to an end? This week’s Throwback Thursday photograph was donated to the archives by Herb Herbert when Joan… Read more »
There are quite a few postcard views of this Fort Pond Bay scene that date from the early 1900s, but this one is a little different because it looks more closely cropped, as if a camera were positioned high, maybe on the mast of a boat. The close angle offers a sense of intimacy, reminding… Read more »
May is National Pet Month. An early Montauk resident, architect Andrew J. Thomas, was an animal lover known for the “personal zoo” he kept on his Spanish-style estate overlooking Fort Pond Bay. On August 9, 1929, the East Hampton Star published this report about the exotic menagerie residing on the estate grounds after visiting with the… Read more »
In 1937 the first annual Long Island Potato Festival took place in Riverhead, on the grounds of the Suffolk County Agricultural Society. It was advertised nationally as “the Long Island potato growers answer to the thousands of dollars being spent for publicity by other potato-producing states,” and was called the “first, constructive campaign to be conducted on… Read more »
In 1899, almost a year after the Rough Riders left Montauk’s Camp Wikoff, the government decided to sell its property sitting unused at the vacant camp. “The site of Camp Wikoff is to be sold at auction,” reported the Ogdensberg Journal. “The property consists of one quartermaster’s warehouse, one commissary storehouse, four detention camp buildings, 22 hospital… Read more »
