In the summer of 1924 at about this time, Robert Moses set out to appropriate 1,700 acres of private land to create a state park at Hither Hills. Moses was head of the Long Island State Park Commission, whose negotiations with the properties’ owners had come unraveled. One landowner was Carl Fisher, who wanted $300… Read more »
Below, a three-piece band on the Lakeside stage, 1950s. | Dave Edwardes Collection, Montauk Library Archives And so, just like that … the summer season is off to a start. As one could have expected … all roads, all invitations, all Instagrams lead to Montauk … And more specifically, The Surf Lodge. All of social note… Read more »
Back in the day, the proprietors of East Hampton made a living not so much by planting crops as by sending livestock to graze on 800 acres of pasture in Montauk. Renting the land together and co-managing the cattle, sheep, and horses, they also built three houses: one at what is now Hither Hills,… Read more »
The children don’t look very happy but the boat sure is beautiful. Also, the Blessing of the Fleet is on Sunday, June 11, and Father’s Day is a week after that, so the photograph seems timely. The 42-foot Ban-Gee was custom-built in 1956 by Rybovich Boats of West Palm Beach. A Rybovich sportfishing boat was… Read more »
The New York Post reported this week that an 800-square-foot trailer at Ditch Plains Beach is in contract to sell for $3.75 million. That is a very far cry from the rates offered above: a mere $220 to rent a spot on the ocean for more than a full summer season. The site of the… Read more »
Kirk Park was dedicated in 1962 to the memory of Major General Norman T. Kirk, surgeon general of the U.S. Army during World War II as well as, as the park’s memorial plaque said, “village doctor, fisherman, friend.” Gen. Kirk was married in 1917 to the sister of Perry B. Duryea, Anne, who had been… 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 »
In the 1910s and 1920s, tea rooms and tea houses dotted America’s new motorways, providing tea and light refreshments to traveling tourists. On the eastern end of Long Island, motorists driving through Montauk could find refuge at the Weeweecho Tea House situated on the southern bluffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. At that time when Montauk… Read more »
There was a surprisingly glamorous whiff to fish on Montauk Harbor in the 1970s and early 1980s. The commercial dock, Gosman’s retail and wholesale seafood operation next door, the new Dock restaurant next door to that – for many, work was hard and physical, and opportunities to kick back were most welcome. These photos come… Read more »
Did you know that Montauk’s first St. Patrick’s Day “parade” took place in 1947, years before the Montauk Friends of Erin was founded? On St. Patrick’s Day 76 years ago, four men decided to take a march down Main Street. They came to rest at what today is Shagwong Tavern (thus initiating a traditional pit… Read more »