Five boulders stand outside the American Legion Hall on Shelter Island with plaques bearing the names of hometown soldiers, including 11 who died during conflicts in the 20th century. READ
Tag: North Fork History Project
In January, our papers began publishing the North Fork History Project, a series of stories showcasing the remarkable history of our area. We began with the massive wall of ice that, as it retreated, scraped and carved the land we live on now — its rivers, salt creeks, ponds, hills, valleys and bays. READ
Cliff Utz Jr. remembers sitting in the back seat of a DeSoto as a 4-year-old on Dec. 7, 1941, when he first heard the news. The car was driving on a bridge over Hashamomuck Pond in Southold when a radio bulletin detailed the news of Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Mr. Utz was at too tender an age to fully appreciate what that meant. What was more telling to him was his father’s reaction. READ
One offshoot of running a company that’s been in the shellfish business for 90 years is aquatic and historical clutter. Ken Homan’s office at Braun Seafood in Cutchogue is an archive of shellfishing ephemera and Native American history, a collection that feels like a room at the American Museum of Natural History. READ
William Beebe grew up in Orient, a small-town boy from an idyllic hamlet surrounded by farms and saltwater and reachable by a narrow causeway that made it nearly an island at the tip of the North Fork, a place by itself. He probably grew up thinking he was the luckiest young man on all of Long Island to have Orient as his home. READ
A story is told of a man standing on Northeast coastland on Sept. 21, 1938, gazing puzzlingly at an unusual gray cloud formation over the Atlantic Ocean. Gradually he realized, to his undoubted horror, that he wasn’t staring at clouds at all, but at a tremendous wall of water.
It was coming his way in all its ferocity. READ
The hurricane that had no name — and made a terrible name for itself — came ashore in 1938.
Since then Long Island has felt the effects of other storms like superstorm Sandy (2012), Hurricane Bob (1991) and Hurricane Gloria (1985), but none has matched the 1938 hurricane, which will mark its 80th anniversary on Sept. 21. READ
It was 38 minutes into the one-hour Quaker meeting before anyone said a word.
Gathered on the grounds of Sylvester Manor, seated in a wooded glade on a jumble of rough-hewn logs fashioned into long benches, there were six at the meeting, seven if you count the small white dog on Shelter Islander Jim Pugh’s lap. They sat largely in silence, until Mr. Pugh gathered the group of Friends together in a circle of hands and called the rise of meeting. READ
Wendy Prellwitz paints in the same Peconic studio where her great-grandfather Henry Prellwitz painted early in the 20th century. The adjoining studio is where her great-grandmother Edith Prellwitz painted.
Next to the studios is the house Henry and Edith had moved to the wooded site, which overlooks Peconic Bay at the end of Indian Neck Lane, in 1914. Entering the house is stepping back in time. In one corner is a self-portrait painted by Edith; on a table nearby is a can that holds some of her paintbrushes. READ
As Georgette Case made her way around Riverhead Cemetery last Thursday morning, she pointed out the gravesites of some of the two dozen or so Civil War soldiers buried there, poignant reminders of the ultimate price those soldiers paid for their country in a time of need. “I probably know more dead people here than otherwise,” said Ms. Case, Riverhead’s town historian. READ