Construction of the Montauk Community Church broke ground during the winter of 1928, with the help of community contributions of labor and resources under the direction of the Pearson Construction Company. Before they had their own building or formalized congregation, members of the Presbytery of Long Island originally met in the Montauk Theater. In January… Read more »
The Depression was in full swing and one in four workers was unemployed when, on December 2, 1932, the East Hampton Star reported that commercial fishing on eastern Long Island was “almost at a standstill.” For decades fishermen had taken advantage of an abundance of menhaden, or bunker, along the coast. Factories, or “pot-works,” on… Read more »
Early local settlers waited till the cows came home – literally — before celebrating Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving holiday was almost exclusively a local New England tradition observed as early as October or as late as January, depending on the town. On the eastern end of Long Island, the date was determined by the homecoming of… Read more »
“Our fighting men are SHEDDING their blood for you. Do your bit by GIVING some of yours to save them.” That was the slogan on the letterhead of the American Red Cross in a November 10, 1943, thank-you to Mrs. Harry A. (Nydia) Bruno of the American Women’s Voluntary Services, also known as the AWVS…. Read more »
It’s been almost 135 years since the Lewis A. King ran aground in a storm near Montauk Point. She was a two-masted schooner from Maine traveling from Boston to New York. The Lewis A. King could carry 142 tons and on December 18, 1887, was loaded with pipe clay and 300-pound sacks of dates. The… Read more »
Is there anything sweeter than a community cookbook? Often compiled to raise money for a good cause, they tend to be stuffed with all manner of extra ingredients. Corny jokes, endearing illustrations, poetry, sage advice, tips for hunting, gathering, and fishing, the names of book committee volunteers and recipes from others fondly remembered, even celebrities… Read more »
Jerry was the first polo pony that Carl Fisher purchased, and he was his favorite right to the end. “In the Roaring Twenties if a young man flunked out of Harvard, Princeton or Yale, it was possible to salvage the family name by measuring him for a padded pith helmet and sending him off to… Read more »
When school starts this week the yellow buses won’t look so different from the first one Cliff Windsor sent out to transport Montauk students in the 1940s. He must have been proud; these photos come from an archival collection donated to the Montauk Library by his son, Clifford Jr., and his son’s wife, Clara Windsor…. Read more »
Ocean waves tore through the dunes to breach Fort Pond. At least four feet of water flooded the highway on Napeague, and a radio tower toppled onto the train tracks there, blocking access to – or escape from – Montauk by that route. When Hurricane Carol struck the Northeast 68 years ago, on August 30,… Read more »
On the brink o’ the beach is right. The ocean hovers like a forgotten child in both these images of Gurney’s Inn. Warren and Maude Gurney managed the King Cole Hotel in Miami Beach for Carl Fisher, as well as a restaurant and inn in Forest Hills, before heading to Montauk to start a similar… Read more »