This week in North Fork history
The following stories were excerpted from Suffolk Times issues published 10, 15, 20 and 30 years ago this week:
30 years ago …
Officials, commuters seek answers from LIRR
Local officials and commuters met Nov. 30, 1981 with representatives of the Long Island Railroad at Brasby’s Restaurant in what was billed as a forum on East End railroad service, but discussion of the discontinued LIRR bus service from Greenport to Babylon dominated much of the conversation, according to an article in that week’s Riverhead News-Review.
Robert Lehmann of the North Fork Commuter’s Association criticized the railroad’s replacement that summer of morning rush hour buses with two push-pull commuter trains, only one of which left from Greenport.
Mr. Lehman said the 6:01 a.m. Greenport train could not be classified as commuter service since it arrived in Manhattan at 9:01 a.m. The bus it replaced left Greenport at 5:38 a.m. and arrived in New York at 8:38 a.m.
Postscript: I fear there will never be a time we’re not writing about the need for more public transportation on the East End.
20 years ago …
Divided opinions on divided highway
There was a time not more than 30 years ago when Route 58 in Riverhead resembled the North Road in Peconic, we wrote in a Dec. 5, 1991 article in The Suffolk Times.
Some people were afraid — as downtown Riverhead continues its struggles to stay vibrant — that the same thing would happen in Southold if Suffolk County followed through on a recommendation to widen Route 48 all the way to Greenport.
“Will the expansion of Route 48 harm business centers on Route 25?,” we wrote. “Will Southold lose its greenbelt? Do we want more strip malls along the divided highway? What about water spline?”
Postscript: Of course, Route 48 was not widened all the way to Greenport, perhaps due to the outcry this recommendation created.
100 years from Nis to New Suffolk
Milica Ostoyich of New Suffolk turned 100 on Nov. 8 1991, and she was the subject of a Suffolk Times feature the following month.
Ms. Ostoyich escaped from Nis, Yugoslavia in 1946 and eventually settled in New Suffolk 20 years later. She spent the final years of her life with her grandson in her home, “The Grove” on Fifth Street.
Ms. Ostoyich had lost her father, one brother and her husband over a two-week period during World War I.
Postscript: Ms. Ostoyich died on Aug. 28, 1992, according to Social Security records. She is buried in East Marion Cemetery.
15 years ago …
A surge for Suffolk County National Bank
What’s up at Suffolk Bancorp? Answer: Earnings and stock prices, we reported in the Dec. 5, 1996 issue of The Suffolk Times.
Suffolk Bancorp’s earnings per share for the first three quarters of 1996 were up by 27 percent over the same point in 1995. The company’s stock rose $5 per share in November 1996 to $39.25.
Postscript: The bank is currently fighting a delisting from Nasdaq. Its stock price fell below $9 this month.
10 years ago …
From ‘Stagecoach’ to Southold
Whatever your age, if you’re a film buff you’ve likely seen the 1939 classic western “Stagecoach,” starring John Wayne. No doubt you remember the young ingenue Louise Platt, who played the feisty Lucy Mallory, a pregnant woman determined to make the trip through Indian country in Arizona to be reunited with her husband.
A lively and engaging 86-year-old widow — as we wrote in the Dec. 6, 2001 issue of The Suffolk Times — Louise Platt Gould resides quietly in Founders Village in Southold, where she occasionally writes poetry and delights in visits from her grandchildren.
Postscript: Ms. Platt Gould continued to live at Founders Landing until her death two years later.
