Anna Pump - The Bridgehampton Museum

Bridge
the
SUMMER 2010
Anna Pump
In Love with the Hamptons
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE...
Ann Sandford:
The Multicultural Ideal
and Social Activism
of Ernestine Rose
Julie Greene:
Ocean Road Summers
1890-1915
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the
ANNUAL MAGAZINE OF THE
BRIDGEHAMPTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
SUMMER 2010 EDITION
John Eilertsen, Ph.D.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Gerrit Vreeland
John A. Millard
SECRETARY/TREASURER Andrew Steffan
Paul Brennan
Carrie Crowley
Kevin Hurley
Francine Lynch
Andrea Madaio
Kevin Miserocchi
Robert Morrow
Debbie Romaine
John Stacks
PRESIDENT
VICE PRESIDENT
CONTENTS
From the Editor’s Desk by John F. Stacks.................................. 2
From the President by Gerrit Vreeland .................................... 4
From the Director by John Eilertsen, Ph.D............................... 6
From the Program Coordinator by Sally Spanburgh ................ 7
Anna Pump
In Love with The Hamptons by Sally Spanburgh .................... 8
Images of Bridgehampton’s Main Street
The Great Depression Era 1929-1939 by Julie Greene .............. 12
By The Light of the (Quarter) Moon
by John Eilertsen, Ph.D ............................................................ 16
STAFF
Sally Spanburgh
Julie Greene
MUSEUM ADMINISTRATOR Mary Gardner
COLLECTIONS MANAGER Nora Cammann
HISTORIAN Richard Hendrickson
PROGRAM COORDINATOR
PHOTO ARCHIVIST
ADVISORY BOARD
Barbara Albright, Fred Cammann,
Leonard Davenport, Clifford Foster,
Craig Gibson, Hon. Nancy Graboski,
Jane Iselin, Michael Kochanasz,
Weezie Quimby, Ann Sandford,
Meriwether Schmid, Dennis Suskind
RALLY STEERING COMMITTEE
Barbara Albright
Susan Blackwell
Fred Cammann
Tony Dutton
Earl Gandel
Chuck MacWhinnie
Danny McKeever
Peter Mole
Stanley Redlus
John Stacks
Ed Tuccio
Jeffrey Vogel
Jack Sidebotham, Rally Cartoonist
BRIDGEHAMPTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
P.O. Box 977 Bridgehampton, NY 11932
631-537-1088
www.bridgehamptonhistoricalsociety.org
www.bridgehamptonrally.org
Ocean Road Summers 1890-1915 by Julie Greene .................... 18
The Multicultural Ideal and Social
Activism of Erestine Rose 1880-1961 by Ann Sandford.............. 24
The Beebe Windmill by John Eilertsen.................................... 28
Sharing memories with
Frank & Joan Raynor by John Eilertsen.................................... 30
Bridgehampton National Bank’s
100th Anniversary by Sally Spanburgh .................................... 32
The Nathaniel Rogers House
Restoration Project Gets Underway! by John Eilertsen .......... 34
Gift Memberships .................................................................... 37
BHHS Members and Supporters ............................................ 38
Cover Photo by John Stacks
from the
Editor’s Desk, John Stacks
We all leave some mark on the places we live, work
and play. Some of us leave larger marks than others,
but we all leave something behind, some history.
Sometimes it is the changes we make in the way our
community works, at other times it is the structures we
create or maintain, or the businesses we invent or
sustain. And of course sometimes it is just the memories we leave behind, implanted in the souls of those
we loved and lived beside.
It is the job of the Bridgehampton Historical Society to
gather and record and preserve as many of those
historical marks as we can find. And it is the job of this
magazine to share what we have collected, whether
from the distant past or from our contemporaries who,
after all, are making the history of our own times.
Our cover story this year focuses on the life and
achievements of Anna Pump, as central a personality
as exists in the Hamptons. She and her enterprises,
Loaves and Fishes, Loaves and Fishes Cookware Store
and the lovely Bridgehampton Inn, are landmarks and
touchstones in all our lives. Anna, after escaping from
Germany at the beginning of World War II, found on
the East End a place that reminded her of home. Over
the years, she has helped us all make this our home.
Besides being a superb cook –she refuses to call herself
a chef – she is generous in her support of Bridgehampton in general and specifically of the Bridgehampton
Historical Society. I think you will enjoy reading Program Coordinator Sally Spanbaugh’s profile of Anna.
Bridgehampton’s premier historian, Ann Sandford,
again graces our pages, this time with a beautifully
written and meticulously researched biographical
portrait of Ernestine Rose. Miss Rose, as she was known
later in life, came from Bridgehampton but made her
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mark away from here, as a librarian. She was the first
public librarian to assemble a racially integrated staff.
When she ran the New York City library branch in
Harlem, she began the accumulation of important
documents and artifacts relating to African American
culture.
Three of the articles in this magazine are drawn
directly from exhibits mounted at the BHHS headquarters in the Corwith House on Main Street. The
current exhibit focuses on the early and very grand
homes built along Ocean Road in the days when, the
rail line from the city having just reached our community, city folks discovered and embraced the beauty and
serenity of this place. To make themselves comfortable
near the beach, they built some epic homes, some of
which are still standing. Julie Greene, the archivist for
BHHS, both curated the exhibit and wrote the article
for this magazine. She also wrote the article looking at
Main Street in Bridgehampton during the Great
Depression. I must say it looks much better now,
despite the Great Recession. Julie of course curated a
Main Street exhibit at Corwith House earlier this year.
At the BHHS, multi-tasking is the rule. Speaking of
which, Sally Spanbaugh, in addition to writing the
profile of Anna Pump, also wrote our article on the
100th Anniversary of the Bridgehampton National
Bank. Her exhibit contained some fascinating early
documents from the bank’s younger years.
Executive Director John Eilertsen’s first professional
calling was as an oral historian and he has instituted a
program at BHHS to collect the spoken recollections
of people in our community. One of those oral
histories appears in brief in this magazine, with John
discussing Bridgehampton life in the 1030’s, 1040’s and
1950’s with Frank and Joan Raynor. John is the ultimate
multi-tasker at BHHS, with his most time-consuming
task currently being the on-going effort to restore the
historic Rogers House at the corner of Montauk Highway and Ocean Road. Observant passers-by will have
noticed that the great columns at the front of the house
have been removed for restoration, scaffolding erected,
and old windows have been boarded up as the serious
work is about the begin. John gives us a full account of
the progress to date and the schedule for completion of
the project. !
Morgan MacWhinnie
American Antiques
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from the
President,
Gerrit Vreeland
History is always a good standard against which to
measure how we are doing. This is particularly true
following the events of the past few years. In fact, the
hamlet is doing quite well. Yes, there are a few empty
store fronts downtown. The real estate market is “quiet”,
and people are not going out for dinner as often as in the
past. The pace of life feels more like the 1970’s, albeit on
a larger scale. My sense is that we are going through a
period of digestion following the rapid growth of the last
20 years. It may take a while, but I think we will come to
enjoy the new pace of life.
The Bridgehampton Historical Society (BHHS) this year
will give you the opportunity to look back at what life was
like in our village during the past 100 years. With a little
imagination, you can sense what it was like to do business
with The Bridgehampton National Bank (BNB) in the
1930’s or to live in the mansions that populated Ocean
Road in 1915.
This spring, we helped the BNB celebrate its centennial by
hosting an exhibit of photographs and handwritten records.
These records covered a period of time when loans were
made with a handshake, and the bank personnel knew all
of its clients by name. Throughout the Depression, the
bank protected its clients’ deposits and helped local
businessmen through the economic turmoil; no different
than their performance in the last three years. As either
shareholders, depositors, or simply members of our
community, we can all be proud that BNB is considered to
be one of the best community banks in the country.
Starting in July, we will host an exhibit about the history
of Ocean Road from 1890-1915. At the turn of the century,
there was a succession of mansions which had been built
from Montauk Highway to Sagaponack Road. Three still
exist: The Rose House, the Nathaniel Rogers House and
the Minden House. One large mansion that no longer
exists was named Tremedden, located on the corner of
Sagaponack Road and Ocean Road. It was a very large
three story wooden structure owned by the Carter family.
In 1888, Charles Evans Hughes married Antoinette
Carter, and then in 1916, he ran for President of the
United States. On the night of the election, he went to
bed in Tremedden, thinking he had won the election over
Woodrow Wilson. The next day, he awoke to discover he
had unexpectedly lost the state of California and, as a
result, the election.
As a footnote to this story, in 1973, I married Antoinette
Carter; other than my election as President of the BHHS,
I have no political ambitions!
These exhibits will give you a sense of our history, our
strength and resilience as a community. There is much to
be learned by looking into the past. Often, these historic
perspectives can give you comfort about the future.
Finally, a closing comment about the Nathaniel Rogers
House. Soon we will be selecting a contractor to perform
the first phase of the restoration process which will
include virtually all the exterior of the house. We believe
that by next year at this time, you will see the fully restored
exterior of the house built by Nathaniel Rogers in 1840.
Coupled with the Rose House across the street, this will
give our village two beautiful landmarks as you enter or
leave the eastern part of the village. !
W.F. McCOY
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS INC.
BRIDGEHAMPTON, NY 537-0265
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from the
Director,
John Eilertsen, PhD.
Henry Glassie, one of my graduate school professors and
a renowned folklorist, scholar and author, once advised
that the way to learn about people “is not from the top
down or the bottom up, but from the inside-out…”1. In
practical terms, this often means using the stories of people to illuminate historical facts and to show change over
time. It’s also a great way to educate people while entertaining and engaging them.
After all, history is about a diversity of people who lived in
a place, and history should engage to show that others occupied our houses, walked our streets, and dug our gardens.
Sometimes we learn and share directly from people best
described as “community tradition bearers,” such as those
local residents who are a part of our “Sharing Memories”
series. This series, developed and presented in collaboration with the Bridgehampton offices of Prudential
Douglas Elliman Real Estate, invites the public to hear
and enjoy the stories and memories of local residents
reflective of their lives and experiences in and around
Bridgehampton.
Sometimes we learn while doing research for our many
exhibitions. Just recently the Historical Society’s archivist,
Julie Greene, came into my office with a newspaper
clipping from the Bridgehampton News dated 1898. The
clipping was an advertisement announcing the opening
of Wah Lee Sing’s Chinese Tea Store and Laundry on
Main Street, Bridgehampton. Accompanying the clipping
was a photograph made from a glass negative donated to
BHHS by Richard G. Hendrickson, displaying Mr. Sing
in his soon-to-open shop. (This historic nugget has
prompted staff suggestions about a future exhibit exploring Main Street c. 1900.)
And at other times we learn the stories of people from
looking at the architecture and evolution of their homes.
Research for our up-coming Ocean Road exhibition
has revealed wonderful information about the lives and
livelihoods of many of the families who built summer
homes on Ocean Road.
Reaching beyond our Historical Society’s walls is a
valuable and exciting way to bring alive the stories of our
community’s residents. !
Footnotes:
1 (Henry Glassie, Passing the Time in Ballymenone: Culture
and History of an Ulster Community (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982).
MARY GARDNER
PAINTINGS
ARCHIVAL PRINTS
www.artspan.com
gardnerproductions@gmail.com
631 899-3724
“Blue”
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watercolor on paper 20x28
from the
Program Coordinator,
Sally Spanburgh
I became the new Program Coordinator for the Bridgehampton
Historical Society in April and couldn’t be more thrilled about
the appointment. This is my dream job. My education and
experience is in architecture and interior design and my passions
have been for art and historic preservation, so this is a perfect
alignment for me. There is a constant flow of artistic, historical,
and architectural exhibits and events here as well as numerous
ongoing and newly created programs that keep us busy year
round and provide the community with a wide assortment of
educational and entertaining activity choices.
One of my first tasks upon arrival was to interview Anna Pump for
our “Bridgehampton Memories Series.” Anna is the owner of the
Bridgehampton Inn (c.1795) and Loaves and Fishes (Foodstore
on Sagg Road 1980, Cookshop on Main Street 2004). The
“Bridgehampton Memories Series” is a program that was started
in February of this year and is an effort to record and archive oral
histories from residents and business owners in the community.
This effort will help us fulfill the Historical Society’s mission “to
inspire the documentation, preservation and interpretation of the
history, oral history, and cultural traditions of Bridgehampton and
its surrounding communities.” So far these have only been audio
recordings. In the future we hope to record them in a digital video
format and to have segments broadcast on local and community
cable channels. In the coming months we will be interviewing
Barbara Lipman-Wulf, widow of the deceased sculptor and
longtime member of the Presbyterian Church in Bridgehampton, and Tapp Franke, a successful and well-known photographic
artist who grew up in Bridgehampton. Artisnal tea is provided by
Plain-T at each interview, a boutique tea company based in
Southampton (www.plain-t.com). Interviews occur approximately
the fourth Thursday of each month, at 10am, and are open and
free to the public.
Our “Parlor Series” program had its last concert on April 17th
with violinist Andrew Koontz. Other musicians who performed
earlier this year were James O’Malley, Terry Sullivan, Terry
Winchell, and Caroline Doctorow. This series was started more
than four years ago and has been quite a popular Saturday
afternoon event. When revived later this year we hope to expand
upon the concert concept by alternating musical performances
with poetry readings, special presentations, and slide-show
lectures elaborating on current and past exhibits.
This summer we will launch our first ever Kids Camp and
anticipate it being wildly successful. The first week in August we
will host twelve children between the ages of 5-7 from 9:30 to 2pm
Monday through Friday on the Corwith House Grounds. Each
day will have a local theme and the children will spend their time
on crafts, obstacle courses, scavenger hunts, playing games,
enjoying music by local musicians, hearing stories under a shady
tree, parading to a local field trip, and truly enjoying the summer
weather. Many of these activities will have an historic flair and
kids will bring home the results of their fun and fantastic tales of
their adventures. Next year we hope to add additional weeks to the
camp program so that more children can attend. Look for images
from this summer’s camp program on our website in late August.
On August 8th the Historical Society will host its late summer
Cocktail Party Benefit. We are so pleased to be hosting it at the
historic home of Doug and Andrea Madaio. Known locally as the
Ludlow Grange House, it was built as the home of Captain Isaac
Ludlow circa 1840, a noted member of Sag Harbor’s whaling fleet.
The house was later passed to his widow, and then to his
daughter Fanny, who married William Hardacre, a wealthy
lawyer and real estate investor, at the home in 1882. They
performed extensive renovations to the house circa 1880 including the addition of the tower, porte-cochere, large porch, and
dormers with scrolls down the sides, all elements of the Queen
Anne style. After Fanny’s death the house passed to her niece and
subsequently Robert Keene, the Southampton Town Historian
for many years. It is now owned by the Madaios who lovingly
restored the house, which had become quite dilapidated, giving
it a new lease on life. Attendees will have the unique and rare
opportunity to see the house and gardens in their current glory
while enjoying refreshments and comraderie during the warm
summer evening. Elaborating on this event in the future, we will
be reviving a bi-annual historic home tour as well as a barn tour.
2011 will be the perfect year to resume this tour in recognition of
the 355th anniversary of Bridgehampton. We welcome and
encourage those interested in having their homes or barns
included in these events to contact us with details.
Last but not least, this year the Bridgehampton Historical Society
will be launching its inaugural local historic structure recognition program. An inventory of historic resources in the area will
be conducted in an effort to discover and share the rich history of
the hamlet and advocate for its recognition, appreciation,
protection and continued vitality. At the same time we will
commemorate nominated structures by presenting their owners
with awards for outstanding restorations and/or renovations which
have been respectful of the original architecture. Also recognized
will be houses which have reached a notable age as well as
structures that may be endangered and need immediate
attention. Naturally we are seeking sponsorships and grants for
this event as details of the program are finalized. In the
meantime we invite and encourage anyone to contact us with
nominations and details at their leisure. !
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Anna Pump
In Love with The Hamptons
by Sally Spanburgh
Anna Pump begins her day early. “I get up at six, I have a
cup of coffee and then I go on my walk along Long Beach
and sometimes if I can’t go in the morning, I go in the afternoon. I walk two or three miles every day. I need that
for my head, and I don’t want anyone to walk with me. I
like to walk alone because otherwise you can’t think - it all
interferes.”
Anna (pronounced Ahna) owns Loaves and Fishes, a highly
regarded and successful catering business located in a little building on the west side of Sagg Road, just south of
Montauk Highway. With her daughter Sybille Van Kempen, she also runs the Loaves and Fishes Cook Shop and
the Bridgehampton Inn, both on Bridgehampton’s Main
Stret. Anna has a loyal clientele and is always chatting with
her customers. “People can come to the store every day to
speak with me and most of them know my story.”
Two years ago Anna Pump offered the use of the Bridgehampton Inn for a fundraiser for the Historical Society’s
Nathaniel Rogers House Restoration Project. BHHS
honored the late Bobby Van who had been the owner of
the popular Main Street restaurant. Last year Anna
repeated her offer to use the Inn as a benefit for BHHS
and the guest of honor was Richard G. Hendrickson. The
Society this year decided to honor Anna, both for her
Travelling in Normandy, France
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generous support of the Historical Society and because of
her many contributions and achievements as a business
owner and author that have enriched our community.
Our dilemma was, how do we ask the guest of honor to
host her own party? Daughter Sybille quickly reassured
us that Anna would be thrilled to be our guest of honor
and would be equally thrilled for us to honor her at the
Bridgehampton Inn.
Anna, born on a farm in Tarp, Germany, in 1934, married
Detlef Pump, who was an architect’s apprentice. After
several years, Anna and Detlef, along with their son Harm
and daughter Sybille (pronounced Sibila), emigrated to
the United States and found themselves in Frenchtown,
New Jersey, where Detlef had a brother who was a
successful builder. Speaking very little English, they
“made a go of it,” and did very well.
In the late 70’s, when their children had graduated from
high school and were off to college they felt they were
ready to move on. Friends who had rented a house on
Meadow Lane in Southampton offered the house to Anna
and Detlef for a two week period. “So we did and, oh
God, we fell in love with the Hamptons.” It reminded
them of Tarp which has the Baltic Sea on one side and
the North Sea on the other, with sea gulls and potato
fields and the smell of the ocean. “Everything was the
same and it just hit us. So we stayed for the two weeks and
went back home and we came back again and started
looking for a house.”
After 18 years in Frenchtown they moved to Long Island
and bought an 18th century house on Noyac Road for
$42,000 that was totally dilapidated. “The roof was caved
in, raccoons had lived in it, nobody had lived in it for 11
years.” They restored it and still live there today.
In 1979 Anna made the decision to enter the food
business. She loved to cook and had studied with James
Beard, Anna Maria Huste (a chef to Jackie Kennedy),
among others, all in New York. “I learned that way. I’m
not a chef at all, I’m a cook and I just loved it.” She
answered an ad in the newspaper by Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa, at that time in Westhampton. Ina asked her
to come in and cook something to demonstrate her skills,
but instead Anna had her over for lunch. She made her
some things that Ina had never had before which she
attributes to being European, and of course, got the job.
She and Ina have been best friends ever since.
Anna with her daughter Sybille at the Loves and Fishes
Food Store
In the spring of 1980, Susan Costner and Devon Fredericks, who owned Loaves and Fishes at the time, wanted
to sell the business. “They were tired of each other and
the business,” Anna recalls. She bought the business and
thirty years later it is going strong.
In the beginning she bought eggs from Richard Hendrickson, a farmer still very much a part of the community today. “I remember one time asking, Richard what’s
the weather going to be, and he said, “Well, you have to
weather the weather no matter what it’s going to be,” and
I will never forget that.”
In the early 1990s it became known that Lois Sullivan
wanted to sell The Bridgehampton Inn. Originally known
as the Gurden Corwith House, the Inn is of the Greek
Revival style and was built in the 1790s. After making an
offer for three consecutive years, Lois finally gave in to
Anna, Detlef, and Sybille, and they bought the building,
which at the time had five kitchens, two bathrooms and
was in general disrepair. Detlef, doing what he did best,
took out the kitchens and created new bathrooms. The
exterior of the building “looked so bad but it had a very
high hedge so you couldn’t see it that much. So we hired
a painter first and we painted the whole building and
cleaned up the garden, and then we took down the
hedge.” Other improvements were made and Anna states,
“And of course breakfast is good.”
Anna and Detlef Pump on their wedding day
Beyond the rejuvenation of the Bridgehampton Inn,
Detlef and Anna refrained from becoming involved in
each other’s professions. “You know how it is with
couples, we had a hard time moving a table together so he
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was not going to interfere in my business and I didn’t
interfere with his. That’s how we lived, how we stayed
married for 53 years. Otherwise it doesn’t work.”
Over the years Detlef restored and renovated many
houses, Sadly our community and the world lost the
skilled master builder, husband, father and friend in
Detlef Pump to complications related to Parkinson’s
disease at the age of 78.
Anna celebrated a birthday recently at a party arranged by
Sybille which included 17 of her closest friends complete
with a birthday cake (two actually) made by Michael
Grimm of Bridgehampton Florists. “It was really delightful. Took lots of pictures and of course in today’s day and
age they are all on my computer now. There is nothing
computerized at Loaves and Fishes. I don’t want any part
of it. I want people to work in the kitchen, and be up
front, and well, you know. It’s a very small community. It’s
country life, I love it. I grew up that way.”
Perusing a local market while abroad
Anna’s currently contemplating a sequel to her last
cookbook, Summer on a Plate, but says something about
“Winter on a Plate” just doesn’t sound right. She loves
soups and stews and constantly experiments with recipes.
One of her grandson’s current inclinations toward Asian
foods has persuaded her to incorporate “some of that” into
the menu at Loaves and Fishes. “All of the ingredients are
very fresh. There’s nothing out of a box, or mixed, or
pre-done at Loaves and Fishes. We use about 400 lbs of
chicken cutlets in the summer and I just bought three
cases of butter and five cases of eggs.”
This year’s event was a lovely outdoor affair at the Bridgehampton Inn with almost one hundred of our most ardent
supporters. We shouldn’t have been surprised that Anna
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Preparation for a meal at the Inn
wanted to have her own party at the Inn, and the passed
hors d’oeuvres as well as overall ambiance were delightful.
Guests enjoyed the talents of Peter Weiss, a jazz musician
with an incredible work history, who strummed bossa
nova’s in the background. Midway through the event
conversations paused to enjoy a few celebratory toasts in
appreciation an of Anna’s vibrant Bridgehampton
businesses and community involvement, one of which
was read out loud by guests who were unable to attend.
“Anna has become part of all our families, because no
family event would ever be possible or certainly as
delicious without her. So far as there is a heart in the
Hamptons, her wonderful kitchen is that heart,” wrote Jo
Carole and Ronald Lauder.
While party-goers finished their glass of one of Wölffer
Estate’s wines, such as the 2009 Rosé, Anna circulated
amongst the crowd being sure to chat with everyone
including her family, which were all in attendance.
“I love being in Bridgehampton and I have no plans on
retiring.” Cheers. !
Relaxing outdoors after work
Special Thanks to those who made
the Anna Pump Celebration Possible:
Party Sponsors:
Volunteers:
Wolffer Estate Vineyards
Plain-T
Bridgehampton Florist
The Bridgehampton Inn
Loaves and Fishes
Pat Perkins
Price and Hollis Topping
Laurie Gordon
Volunteers:
Barbara Albright
Carrie Crowley
Servers:
Charlotte Johnson (aged 9)
Evan Johnson (aged 12)
Kayley Ritz (aged 12)
Sarah Spanburgh (aged 6)
ESTABLISHED 1925
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Images of Bridgehampton’s
Main Street
The Great Depression Era 1929-1939
by Julie Greene
South side of Main Street, October 18, 1930
North side of Main Street, looking east. September 7, 1930
When the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929,
the waves of panic didn’t hit the shores of Bridgehampton until the mid-1930s. As our nation struggled with
economic turmoil, local people adapted to these challenges and took advantage of new opportunities. On
Bridgehampton’s Main Street it was business as usual.
Like Main Streets across America, it has undergone
many changes over the decades while continuing to
mirror community life. Opened originally in the 17th
century as the “Path to Maidstone,” it has served as a
byway for traffic passing east-west for hundreds of years.
Our Main Street is actually one small section of Montauk Highway, a 100-mile stretch that runs continuously
from Jamaica, Queens, through Nassau and Suffolk
Counties all the way to Montauk Point.
By the 1920s many of the original 19th century structures along Main Street took on a new face. Buildings
that served both as residential dwellings and commercial enterprises began a transition. Front porches
turned into store fronts built out to the sidewalk, retaining but leaving their old character behind, literally.
And by the late 1920s many new outcroppings of buildings were for commercial use only.
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The D.L. Chester Store which was built on the corner
of Ocean Road and Main Street in 1907 added three
new storefronts in the late 20s, one housing a luncheonette and another a Polish deli.
The library, post office and bank called Main Street
home (and still do), keeping the pedestrian traffic alive
and flowing.
Bridgehampton National Bank, Schenck’s Meat market,
and Schenck House, 1931
Savings banks over all on Long Island fared better than
commercial banks during the Great Depression and
Bridgehampton National Bank was no exception.
Opened in 1910, the bank saw prosperity through the
1920s, and depositors trusted the institution through
tough times. On March 4, 1933, President Roosevelt
closed all banks temporarily. According to B.N.B’s 25th
Anniversary Pamphlet (1935), after a few days, restrictions were lifted, and B.N.B. was one of the few banks
that were privileged to reopen for business. Later in 1933,
the federal government passed the Banking Act with a
provision for insuring deposits. By 1935, all deposits at
B.N.B were insured up to $5,000 for each depositor.
Hampton Library, June 20, 1930
The Hampton Library, endowed by Charles Rogers and
William Gardiner in 1876, opened its doors in 1877 to
the public. During the 1930s, the library housed many
of the works of America's most distinguished writers, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and the
future Sag Harbor resident John Steinbeck, whose topical novels began to explore the effects of the Great Depression. According to the Bridgehampton News in
early 1934, the Hampton Library’s book circulation and
registration was up considerably in 1933. The total registration of borrowers in 1933 was 864, an increase of
130, of whom 77 were children.
(now Loaves & Fishes Cookshop) to accommodate a
larger population. H. C. Bohack Co. Grocery occupied
the western portion of the building.
Main Street prior to the 1930s
had its fair share of specialty
food markets. As the demand
grew many of these stores
began expanding their inventories. In 1932, the Schenck
Bros. Meat Market (1910) rebuilt their storefront and reopened as the Royal Scarlet
Store carrying meats and
poultry as well as groceries,
fruits and vegetables. Stores
like Bohack’s and the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (A & Roger Maran and Chris
P) kept prices along Main Moore, outside Bohack’s,
Street competitive. In 1934, a May 14, 1932
loaf of bread was 8¢, milk
14¢/qt, 2 cans of Campbell’s Beans 9¢ and of course potatoes 5¢/10lbs. (A & P Ad, Bridgehampton News, June
29, 1934)
H. C. Bohack Grocery Co. Inc. and Post Office, October 1930
The Bridgehampton Post Office had moved from its
eastern location (now Starbucks) to a new building
The Schenck Brothers Meat Market transformation,
May 10-June 4, 1932
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Motored transportation and businesses catering to automobiles did not slow down during the 1930s but
began to proliferate. By the early 1940s, there were 5
service stations stretching from Hayground to Sagg all
along Bridgehampton’s Main Street. The New York
Times dubbed the area the “Gassy Bull” referring to
the colonial era name for the vicinity, the “Bull Head.”
Sinclair Lubrication, November 8, 1935
Ann Sandford’s Grandfather Lived Here: The Transformation of Bridgehampton, N.Y., 1870-1970, “Ed
Tiska, a farmer, said, “From spring to fall, when the
farmers start digging potatoes, they’d put their purchases on the cuff [getting credit]. Storeowners knew
that when the farmer dumped his potatoes, they’d always get paid.” He recalled one particular grocer, Tony
DePetris, an Italian-American who had a fruit market
on Main Street, helped cash-short farming families.”
Prohibition (1920-1933) had induced an economic
down turn for most of the country as many restaurants
and saloons made way for speakeasy clubs and the like.
But some (not all) of our farming families managed to
profit from the illegal business of rum-running. Canadian liquor, whiskey to be exact was “imported” from
large ships out in international waters, put on smaller
Mob-controlled boats, and brought ashore quietly and
stored in local barns for around a $1 a case. If you had
decent-size barn and could house 100 cases, that was a
nice profit for one night’s safekeeping.
Sinclair Lubrication, owned by Gordon “Moosie”
Thompson (1903-1994) opened his station during the
height of the depression in 1934, serving a real need of
the ever growing motoring population.
Basso’s Restaurant 1931
Studebaker Agency and Tucker and Murray Garage Co.,
June 4, 1931
The Studebaker Agency and Tucker & Murray Garage
Co. operated right on Main Street. In addition to its
name brand, it also offered other major American
brands of automobiles for sale. (The building is now
home to Pulver Gas, offices and showroom)
As hardships grew during the 1930s, farms were lost,
owners became renters and businesses changed hands,
one thing remained true, the community as a whole circled its wagons and took care of its own. As retold in
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Basso’s Restaurant, a mainstay on Main Street since the
early 1910s (now World Pie), had taken on “temporary
ownership” under Louis Cavagnaro in the late 1920s.
When the “Noble Experiment” failed and the Volstead
Act was repealed in 1933, Frank Basso was back in business, returning from a hiatus in Hampton Bays.
As the taps began to flow again, life on Main Street
began anew, despite the Depression. Shortly after the
Basso’s return, Mr. Cavagnaro moved across the street
and opened a family restaurant in the old Sayre house
(which would become Elaine Benson’s gallery). And
Joseph Septynski opened a New York State Retail Wine
and Liquor Store on Main Street near the new Post Office in March of 1934.
James A. Sandford & Sons Plumbing and Heating and
family home, February 8, 1934
In 1895, James A. Sandford established the hamlet’s
public water system. The company significantly expanded the water supply as indoor plumbing and lavatories slowly began to replace outhouses. (In 1984, the
Suffolk County Water Authority bought out the local
water company.) In their tradition of serving the community, not only did the Sandford family run a multitude of businesses, including a hardware store, on Main
Street, but Estelle Sayre Sandford, the family matriarch, also took in boarders during the Depression. Following suit the Hampton House (Nathaniel Rogers
House) took in regular boarders, mostly local schoolteachers in the off-season as well.
In 1929, Dr. Arthur Corwith, a general practitioner,
came to town and set up shop in the Henry H. Chatfield House, a turreted Queen Anne-style building on
the south side of Main Street and west of the Sandfords’
properties. During the 1930s there was a move from
house calls to office visits, forever changing the doctorpatient dynamic, and Dr. Corwith was the first in
Bridgehampton to make the transistion.
Just on the corner of School Street and Main Street
stands a stucco building erected by James A. Sandford,
where in 1925 the Pappas family opened the Candy
Kitchen. The Candy Kitchen has always been a cornerstone of life in Bridgehampton, dishing out breakfasts, sandwiches, and ice cream, as well as offering a
warm gathering spot during tough times.
Throughout the country money was in short supply but
people did what they could to entertain themselves.
Parlor games, board games, theater, dances, and movies
Bridgehampton Community House, Winter 1930
were popular escapes. The Bridgehampton Community House, built in 1923, was the place to be. Dances,
civic events, and, for 50¢ admission, theater productions were held there.
North side of Main Street after hurricane, September 1938
For most of America, the Great Depression lasted from
1929 until the onset of World War II. But the eastern
end of Long Island got an early reprieve because of an
unlikely suspect, the Hurricane of 1938. Although it was
a devastating storm, the aftermath of the hurricane is
credited with lifting this area of out the Great Depression. Relief and rebuilding efforts brought a wealth of
local jobs.
Perhaps life along Bridgehampton’s Main Street faired
better than others during this economic crisis because,
as an agricultural society already familiar with the ups
and downs of crop yields, the local community was far
better prepared to sustain itself. !
This article is based in part on text from the exhibit Images
of Bridgehampton’s Main Street, the Depression Era, 19291939. Special thanks to Stacy Dermont.
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By The Light of the
(Quarter) Moon
by John Eilertsen
Have you ever wondered about the quarter moon
crescent seen above the door in most outhouses?
Some people suggest that the cutout of the moon was
intended to let light into the structure. The best way to
let light in was to put in a window. For privacy reasons,
most outhouses were designed with the window above
the line of sight. This allowed just enough light in to
take care of business! It also allowed the real moon to
shine through during the night. Bringing a lit lantern
into some outhouses could have caused quite a bang so
the moon won out!
Others contend that the crescent was never designed to
be a vent or a window to let in light. A well built out-
house usually had a vent
along the roof line to vent
out the chamber and a
pipe from the box through
the ceiling to vent out the
gases. Instead, old practical carpenters would just
cut a crescent shaped groove into the door which fit the
shape of a hand reaching into the door. Thus the door
could be opened from the outside and if necessary the
user could reach up from inside to secure the door if
they heard someone coming. To insure privacy, you
would find a scrap of cloth nailed on the inside so it
would drape down and cover the opening without
hindering the hand from reaching in.
Over time, hardware became much cheaper and the
crescent was no longer necessary and the traditional
handle was replaced by those new fangled metal
devices. Because the crescent became synonymous
with the backhouse, the crescent tradition lived on and
eventually became a signature decoration for this piece
of Americana.
And still others claim that the familiar crescent moon
carved into the privy door is actually an ancient one,
and was a sign for womanhood in colonial days and on
the frontier. It's male counterpart, Sol, was either a star
or a sun burst design also on the door. Since most male
outhouses fell into disrepair rather quickly they seldom
survived; while the female ones were better maintained, and were eventually used by both sexes.
Although you can find outhouses still standing with the
crescent moon, the original meaning for gender
identification was lost by the later nineteenth century
in most areas of the country.
Corwith House Outhouse
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For more “outhouse” tidbits, check out the web site
OuthouseTour.com.
1 East Main Street
Riverhead, NY 1190
(631) 208-0072
1 8 7 5
S I N C E
I N S U R A N C E
DARK HORSE RESTAURANT
Dayton Ritz&Osborn
Announcing the opening of
78 Main Street . East Hampton, NY
fax 631.324. 3326
Phone 631.324.0420
2414 Main Street . Bridgehampton, NY
fax 631.537. 0356
Phone 631.537.oo81
info@droins.com
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Ocean Road Summers
1890 – 1915
by Julie Greene
In 1870, when the Long Island Railroad was completed to
Bridgehampton, the trip out to the East End became
much easier -- still quite an adventure from the Isle of
Manhattan and from other points west, but shorter and
less dusty than before.
It didn’t take long for wealthy summer visitors to catch on
to the beauty of the shorelines and the medicinal benefits
of the salt air, which brought them back summer after
summer. They came first as boarders in existing farmhouses, as renters of the early estates, and then as owners
of their own piece of paradise, marking the first expansion
of Ocean Road. And before long the locals -- the Halseys,
Hedges, and Sandfords -- realized the value of the land
they had held for generations.
On a trip down Ocean Road, known as Atlantic Avenue at
the turn of the 20th century, in an open carriage to the
beach, one would pass the grand homes of a toy importer,
a pen manufacturer, a coal industrialist, a merchant tailor
and an inventor. The road was lined with magnificent elm
trees, and nestled in along the way you’d find more modest farmhouses against a backdrop of potato fields. When
the carriage would crest the dune, the rider would take in
the awe of the Atlantic. There were bath houses and an
arbor to the left, and to the right, the Life Saving Station
and crew, sturdy and ever ready.
Gernda
Marcel Kahle (1858-1909) bought the estate of W. H. H.
Rogers on the( north or south)west corner of Ocean Road
and Church Lane in 1904. Originally designed by the
Riverhead architect Charles Skidmore, Mr. Kahle made
extensive renovations, enlarging the house considerably
for his family of seven children and their offspring. The
Kahles christened the twenty-two acre estate, Gernda,
German for green fields.
Part of Bridgehampton’s summer colony, the residence
boasted thirteen bedrooms, six maids' rooms, a caretaker's
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Gernda, The Kahle’s Summer Home, c. 1910
cottage, carriage house, stable, greenhouse, chicken
house, barn, dovecote, playhouse, and other buildings.
Marcel Kahle was a founder of the George Borgfeldt
Company of New York City, an importing agency, with
George Borgfeldt and his brother Joseph Kahle. When
Borgfeldt retired in 1900, Marcel became president of the
firm, which imported dolls, furniture, house wares, and
china, among other
items, but he really
made his mark in the
world of toys. In 1903,
at the Leipzig Fair in
Germany, under the
direction of Marcel,
Borgfeldt buyer, Herman Berg, purchased
3,000 Steiff teddy
bears, acquiring the
rights to sell Steiff
exclusively in the
United States. Later
the company represented the Kewpie Marcell Kahle (1858-1909),
doll and Walt Dis- President of the George Borfeldt
ney’s Mickey Mouse. Company, 1902
Kahle died suddenly in a tragic accident on Staten Island
in 1909. His widow, Julie (1858-1931), an accomplished
miniature portrait artist, whose work, “The Girl in the
White Fur,” is part of the Metropolitan Museum of
Art’s permanent collection, continued to summer in
Bridgehampton after his death with her children and
grandchildren.
After Julie’s death in 1931, her estate was evenly divided
amongst her children, with other bequests, $5,000 to St.
Ann’s Episcopal Mission Church, $5,000 to Mary Reuter
of Bridgehampton, and $2,000 to Henry W. Diffene,
superintendent of the Kahle Bridgehampton estate.
The Kahles also owned a 220-acre dairy farm on the west
side of Millstone Road that they leased to Tony Tiska
during the Great Depression. Tiska eventually bought the
farm in 1940.
Gernda suffered extensive damage in the Hurricane of
1938 and was demolished in 1940-1941.
Upon visiting Bridgehampton after the
death of his first wife
in 1868, Richard Jr.
met and married the
youngest daughter of
Bridgehampton's
Judge Abraham T.
Rose (1792-1857), Antoinette Rose (18441925), who grew up in
the Bull’s Head Inn.
The Richard Esterbrook, Jrs. raised four
children in Plain- Mrs. Richard (Antoinette Rose)
field, N.J., Brooklyn, Esterbrook
N.Y. and Bridgehampton, L.I. -- Richard III and Jeanette
(children by his first wife, Jeanette Eustace Hardy, 18441868) and Rose and Frank (children with Antoinette Rose)
Richard III (1864-1910), an officer at the pen company
married Mary Nichols and lived in New York City. He
raised three children until his death of typhoid pneumonia in 1910 at the age of 46.
Tremedden, Home of Richard Esterbrook, Jr. and family, @1895
Tremedden
Painted deep red with green trim, and striking a
commanding presence on the northeast corner of Ocean
and Sagaponack Roads, Tremedden, Welsh for “Trees in
the Meadow,” was home to Richard and Antoinette
Esterbrook, Jr.
Designed by the architect Carlos C. Buck of Brooklyn in
the stick style, the estate featured a playhouse, a carriage
house, and barn. Host to many soirees, elaborate luncheons, afternoon teas, euchre parties (a popular card game),
and picnics, Tremedden was at the center of summer life
in Bridgehampton at the turn of the 20th century.
Tremedden was built between 1880 and 1881 by Richard
Esterbrook Jr. (1837-1892), the son of Cornish Quakers,
Richard and Mary Date Esterbrook Sr. Richard Jr.
emigrated from England in the late 1850s, first to Canada,
and was soon followed by his parents and sister, Mary Ann.
They finally settled in Camden, N.J., where he and his
father, founded the Esterbrook Steel Pen Company.
Jeanette (1865-1918) married John Henry Longmaid (18601930), an Englishman who became a Montana gold and
silver mine engineer. She raised four children and spent
most of her time in Montana where she died in 1918.
Rose (1869-1919) married Dr. Colin Stuart Carter, a prominent Manhattan dentist, in 1892 and split her time between
New York City and Bridgehampton, raising three sons,
Colin Esterbrook, Philip Van Gelder, and Paul Stuart. The
three Carter boys enviably spent their summer days on the
beach and on the Bridgehampton Club’s course, which was
directly across the street from their residence. Philip was a
three-time Junior Metropolitan Golf Champion by 1915.
Frank (1872-1902) married Eva Hildreth, daughter of
Charles N. Hildreth, the “Great Round Pond Ice
Merchant” of Sag Harbor in 1900. His life was cut short
early at the age of 31 and he did not leave any children.
Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948), former governor
of New York, Associate Supreme Court Justice, and
Republican Presidential candidate in 1916, called Tremedden his summer home. Hughes’s wife, Antoinette Carter,
was the sister of Dr. Colin S. Carter (Husband of Rose
Esterbrook Carter).
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Following the matriarch Antoinette Esterbrook's death in
1926, her will left her estate to be divided equally between
her three grandsons, Colin, Philip, and Paul Carter.
Unfortunately, the attorney handling her estate was
murdered, causing many difficulties in settling her will.
By the time of the Great Depression, the house fell into
disrepair. Mrs. John Berwind, niece of Mrs. Esterbrook
and owner of Minden on Ocean Road, purchased the
house and had it demolished by a local firm, A.W.
Chapman, in the late summer of 1939.
Wanting to be close to family, Katherine Berwind acquired 12 acres from the adjacent estate, Tremedden, the
home of her late uncle Richard Esterbrook Jr., on Ocean
Road. And unlike an older Berwind brother’s palatial
manor, the Elms, in Newport, R.I., John and Katherine
chose to build a more ‘modest’ 20,000-square-foot summer “cottage.” Minden was named after John’s ancestral
German homeland.
Designed by Grenville Temple Snelling, a professor of Architecture at Columbia University, the estate was complete in 1912, with formal gardens, orchards, garage, staff
buildings, power plant, and the historic Beebe Windmill,
which was moved to the grounds in 1915. George S. De
Puy, a Bridgehampton firm, was responsible for the interior design of the three story house.
The Berwinds, known for the philanthropic work at home
and abroad, were instrumental in funding many of Bridgehampton’s institutions, such as the Hampton Library, St.
Ann’s Episcopal Church, the Bridgehampton Presbyterian
Church, and the Bridgehampton Community House.
Minden, Home off Mr. & Mrs. John E. Berwind, 1912
Minden
Excavation on the Berwind property commenced almost
immediately after the nuptials of John E. Berwind and
Katherine Murray Wood in late 1911. Set back from Ocean
Road, it was to be a Mediterranean-style villa.
John E. Berwind, one of four brothers who established
one of the largest bituminous coal companies in the
world, Berwind-White Coal Co., supplier to the U.S.
Navy and the Cunard Line. He was born to Prussian immigrants, John E., a prominent Philadephia guitar maker
and Charlotte Augusta Berwind. By the late 1880s, the
Berwind brothers had amassed a fortune comparable to
the Morgans’, Vanderbilts’, and Astors’. Residing in New
York City, John, the vice president of the coal company,
was a widower. He lost his first wife, Mary Davenport
Dale, and child during child birth in 1893.
His second wife, Katherine Murray Wood (1870-1947) was
the granddaughter of Richard Esterbrook Sr., the founder of
the Esterbrook Steel Pen Company of Camden, N.J., and
the daughter of Mary Anna Esterbrook and Francis Wood,
president of the pen company until his death in 1902.
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Pre-1915 Aerial shot of Minden
Rusticana
The best-dressed man on Ocean Road, hands down, was
Emile Twyeffortand as an early resident he became one of
the unofficial founders of the Bridgehampton “summer
colony.”
President of the Merchant Tailors of America, Twyeffort
considered himself an artist and was a foremost authority
on men’s fashion in New York City. Born in Belgium in
1856, Tyweffort, from the Welsh, meaning two forts, first
visited the United States as a young boy, and then returned with his family for good in the late 1870s.
On October 28, 1886, Emile married Lillie Gertrude
Mathey at the Eglise du Saint-Espirt, in New York City.
The Twyefforts resided in Manhattan, and raised a large
family of four sons, Clarence, Raymond, Herbert, and
Allen and two daughters, Beatrice and Lillian. At a time
when ready-to-wear clothes were not yet mainstsrean, the
merchant tailors were able to take advantage of the market, offering quality fabrics and stylish cuts at more affordable prices – just under custom tailoring.
In the mid 1890s, the Twyefforts purchased an existing
home on Ocean Road. By 1897, Mr. Twyeffort had made
his wealth and hired Charles H. Woodhull of Patchogue
to build his dream home on the eastern part of his property fronting Sagg Pond. A large barn, 48 by 24 feet, was
added to the property in May of 1898.
After their mother, Lillie, died in 1944, the Twyeffort
siblings and spouses shared Rusticana. Leaving no heirs,
they sold the estate in 1955 and later made a monetary gift
to the Presbyterian Church and reverted their shareholder
stock in the Bridgehampton Club back to the club.
Rusticana still
stands on the
edge of Sagg
Pond off Ocean
Road in its
entire original
splendor.
Rusticana, Home of the Emile Twyeffort Family, 1910
Emile was a founder of the Bridgehampton Club and he
and his extended family were active members since its inception in 1900. While other golfers were teeing-up at the
next fairway, the Twyefforts were known to change their
outfits on the back nine(I’m not sure there was ever a back
nine at B-hampton Club. How about making it ‘known to
change their outfits between rounds.) Thus they were
their own best customers! This didn’t hurt their game; it
was well known that the Twyefforts could hold their own
on the links. In September of 1907, Clarence won the silver-cup given by Mrs. Rose Esterbrook Carter over other
members, including Carters, Pecks, Kahles and Worths.
Also instrumental in organization of the Bridgehampton
National Bank in 1909, Emile sat on its Board of Directors
until his death in May of 1925. He was a very active member of the Republican Party and was an ardent supporter
of the future presidential candidate, and summer resident,
New York Governor Charles E. Hughes.
Twyefforts ready for Tennis at the Bridgehampton Club c.1900
Quimby Compound
Quimby, Wiley and Mills Compound
Inventor and well respected patent expert, Edward Everett
(E.E.) Quimby was first introduced to Bridgehampton
after an excursion on the Long Island railroad brought
him to the end of the line in Bridgehampton in the late
1880s. A carriage ride down Ocean Road to the beach and
a night in an old farmhouse was all it took. He returned
the next summer with his family, and it was reported in
the Sag Harbor Express, April 26, 1888, that he rented the
Palmer Cottage and did so for several years afterward.
E.E. (1831-1902) was born in Maine and married Cynthia
Root (1833-1912) from Massachusetts around 1855. Cynthia
hailed from the Root family of musical performers
(similar to the Von Trapp Family). The pair settled down
in Orange, New Jersey, and raised their family of six,
F. Morrow, Minnie, Annie, William, Kate, and Cynthia,
who died young.
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E.E. was making great strides in the world of inventions.
He devised a lightening rod system for rooftop mounting
in New York City, and a screw machine used by the
American Screw Company. He was involved in high profile patent cases, at Bell Telephone and the Harvey Steel
Process. In 1894, E.E. had the opportunity to purchase 32
acres of prime real estate on the east of Ocean Road extending to the edge of Sagg Pond from the estate of B.F.
Sandford. Here he built the first of many summer homes.
As E.E. and Cynthia’s family grew to include in-laws and
grandchildren, he parceled off the acreage and five
homes were built over the next 15 years to form the family enclave.
Son William E., manufacturer of electric goods married
Grace Tingue on September 1, 1900. They had four children and built a home a bit back from Sagg Pond.
Anneden, c.1905
Daughter Kate Quimby married William O. Wiley, a
book publisher, had two daughters Cynthia and Julie, and
built the summer home “Half Acre,” next door to E.E in
1902. William Wiley’s brother Charles got into the family
act and built a house as well.
On the lot furthest in from Sagg Pond, daughter Minnie
built her home with husband, Charles J. Mills, a publisher, and their three children.
After all the children had built their respective homes,
E.E. tore down his original cottage and built Annesden
around 1900, for his daughter Annie.
The Ocean Road exhibition at Corwith House will
remain open through the Autumn of 2010. Please call
631-537-0015 for further information. !
Paul’s Lane . Bridgehampton, NY
631` 537 ` 0888
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Edward Everett Quimby and two of his grandsons, c.1900
Celebrating
AN ONGOING SUCCESS STORY
IT’S OUR 100th BIRTHDAY!
A century ago, an idea for customer focused banking
became Bridgehampton National Bank.
The essential values of integrity and service we started
with remain the same.
You might say our history has led us to where we are today.
And you’d be right.
JOIN OUR CELEBRATION!
Times Change. Values Don’t.
Bridgehampton 537-1000 • Center Moriches 909-4990 • Cutchogue 734-5002 • East Hampton 324-8480 • East Hampton Village 324-8481 • Greenport 477-0220
Hampton Bays 728-9041 • Mattituck 298-0190 • Montauk 668-6400 • Peconic Landing 477-8150 • Sag Harbor 725-6622 • Shirley 281-1245 • Southampton Co. Rd. 39 283-1286
Southampton Village 287-6504 • Southold 765-1500 • Wading River 929-4250 • Westhampton Beach 288-7756 • Coming Soon: Deer Park & Patchogue
Member FDIC
www.bridgenb.com
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The Multicultural Ideal and
Social Activism of Ernestine Rose
(1880-1961)
by Ann Sandford
Ernestine Rose was an only child, born to farmer Stephen
Rose and to Anna Chatfield in 1880 in Hay Ground, a settlement considered part of Bridgehampton at the time.
From these seemingly modest roots, she would grow up to
become a city librarian, War Service librarian, professor,
author, president of her state library association, member of
the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), and, in
retirement, a civic-minded leader in her beloved hometown. I first encountered “Miss Rose,” her legacy, that is,
when I began to research my history of Bridgehampton,
Grandfather Lived Here.[1] At that time I was struck by her
work in community-building and that recognition helped
me to recall that in the 1950s, I had greeted her on Main
Street, listening as she and my mother dissected some tidbit of local history. These memories stuck with me. The
next time I noticed her, five years ago, she was on film.
Made by the United States Information Service in 1950,
“Problems of a Small Community” featured Rose, along
with other Bridgehampton notables. I then found myself
reading about her in articles in the New York Times archive
on the Internet.
Ernestine Rose; c. 1898 and probably a portrait at the time
of her graduation from the Bridgehampton Academy
Still, her life remained a mere curiosity to me, until a
chance meeting with Averell Geus, the East Hampton town
historian. I mentioned my findings about Rose to her and
then I listened to Averell’s remarkable story: in 2005, on a
tip, she had learned about a dumpster on Wainscott Main
Street in front of Rose’s long-deceased, first cousin’s
farmhouse. Averell proceeded to locate this dumpster and
remove everything that appeared salvageable, including
Rose’s papers, the family’s photographs, and other artifacts,
put there by cousins who were cleaning out the attic, readying the house for sale. Averell gave these treasures from the
dumpster to me, in trust, a year or so ago. After many years,
I realized that Ernestine Rose deserved further study.
Rose House, Hay Ground, built c. 1730; photo dates from c.
1880; demolished. Currently is the site of Water Mill Lumber.
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Here are my findings—and a few speculative thoughts.
Although her father “seems to have been absent,” as one
researcher has suggested,[2] Ernestine had role models in
the professions on her mother’s side of the family. Anna
Chatfield Rose (1859-1916), whose ancestors fought in the
American Revolution, had become a teacher and in 1891,
the principal of the District Nine School on Ocean Road in
Bridgehampton. The future librarian and professor was
eleven.[3] Her uncle, a brother of Anna, Justice Henry
Chatfield (1866-1912), practiced law throughout Southampton town. He served as the first president of the Bridgehampton National Bank, 1910-1912, and as president of the
Board of Education from 1908 to 1912, when he passed
away. Given the family’s emphasis on education, it is not
surprising that Ernestine would graduate from the private
Bridgehampton Academy (1859-1907), where she pursued a
course in the liberal arts, and from Wesleyan University,
which she attended along with three other young women
from Bridgehampton, also academy graduates.[4] One of
them, May Van Scoy, became the librarian at the Hampton
Library just before World War I. Upon her graduation from
college, Ernestine trained at the New York State Library
School in Albany, where she received her degree in 1904.
Four years later, now twenty-eight, the young librarian
accepted a position that would crystallize the direction of
her thinking and her leadership activities for the next half
century: she became the librarian of a “Carnegie library,”
at the branch of the New York Public Library known as the
“polyglot” library, according to the New York Times, and
located in a largely Chinese neighborhood on the Lower
East Side of Manhattan. There, in 1911, she began to add
books in Chinese, mostly on science, in order to augment
the collection that already included works in many
languages. She was among the earliest public librarians to
do so. At other branches where she served, she exhibited
the works of local artists.[5] In 1917, the year the United
States entered World War I, Rose became a published
writer, documenting her more than ten years of experience
in New York’s branch libraries.
The book, Bridging the Gulf, Work with the Russian Jews
and Other Newcomers, argued that a library must bring
different ethnic groups together, not to “Americanize”
them, but to serve as the vehicle for implementing what we
today would call a multicultural vision. A library staff must
understand the “history, traditions, and literature of each
nationality that the library expects to serve” and it must offer
“friendly service,” in a non-patronizing environment.
Serving her Jewish patrons, she wrote: “One must be as
familiar with Jewish holidays as with Christian.”[6] But
World War I interrupted Ernestine’s work, and her writing.
Like other Americans, she felt called to serve and accepted
a series of war-related jobs as a member of the American
Library Association’s (ALA) Library War Service, which
distributed books to soldiers in army camps and hospitals,
stateside and abroad.
In Paris during the “demobilization period,” as her 1919
passport application states,
Rose organized separate
library services for black
soldiers, required under
segregation. The highlight of
that year in Europe, however,
was her work in organizing
the soldiers’ library for the
American Army of Occupation in Coblenz, in Germany’s
Rhine
Valley.
Artifacts from this period
form the identifiable core of
Ernestine at the ALAthe surviving Wainscott farmhouse, attic collection—a sponsored Soldiers’
map, watercolor book, and Library in Coblenz,
Germany, 1919
her photos of the American
library, its staff, the war’s destruction. Upon her return
from Europe in 1920, these experiences—work with African
Americans in Paris, with soldiers from many ethnic backgrounds, and her earlier successes in immigrant neighborhoods—qualified her as an ideal candidate to lead the 135th
Street Branch of the New York Public Library, known as
the Harlem branch.
During the ensuing decade of the 1920s, the start of the
Harlem Renaissance, this institutional reformer became
the first librarian in a major city to assemble an integrated
professional staff. She was also one who fought racism: in
a 1921 article entitled “Serving New York’s Black City,” a
still growing neighborhood of about 150,000 people, Rose
argued that a library, integrated into its community, served
as an “entrance into American life” for its patrons. It could
create “a bridge…between races” and promote “mutual
understanding.” Her staff would serve as the model. While
acknowledging the heritage of slavery, the reality of
present day “social ostracism” from whites, and economic
hardship, she posed the dilemma for “negroes:” in Harlem
as a whole, living a “separate life” from whites impeded
blacks’ own advancement.[7] The following year, even
more boldly, she published her article, “Where White and
Black Meet.” She outlined her library’s activities, which
were available to everyone. Among them: evening book
discussions and lectures advised by a committee comprising
“people of the neighborhood,” and art events to “stimulate
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race consciousness.” The “most serious duty” of the library,
however, was to lead “intellectual thought”—through book
clubs, publishing book reviews, story hours for children.
Books, Rose argued, are the “medium of progress.”[8] Her
friend Langston Hughes would have agreed. Reflecting on
the Harlem where he settled in the early 1920s, the African
American poet wrote, forty years later, that Rose was “a
warm and wonderful librarian…[who] made newcomers
feel welcome.”[9]
Not surprisingly, Rose also began to work to acquire
documents and artifacts pertaining to African American culture for the Harlem branch. She worked with the National
Urban League to secure funds from the Carnegie Corporation, and in 1926, materials collected by Arthur Schomburg,
an African American from Puerto Rico, were purchased.[10]
Today, those items form the core of the largest archive of its
kind in the world, the Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture, located in a complex on the northwest
corner of 135th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard which
incorporates the original (1905) branch library building. In
1925, Rose had predicted the expansion and growing value
of the collection because it was located in Harlem, which
she called the “greatest Negro city in the world."[11]
the statement that a community’s interests, regardless of race
or nationality, should guide the purchase of library books.[12]
A year later, The American Negro Theatre was founded,
with performances held in the basement of the 135th Street
Branch. Although she retired in 1942—succeeded by the
African American assistant librarian—Rose continued her
career as an associate in library service at the Institute on
Library Services in Hospitals. At the close of World War II,
she began to lead projects in the field of bibliotherapy, the
curative use of books. As she had done throughout her
career, Rose also continued to teach library science, mainly
at the Columbia University School of Library Science.
In 1946, Miss Rose returned to Bridgehampton, where she
had purchased an 1880s-era house on Lumber Lane. Ever
the activist, she helped organize the Community Council
during this emerging Cold War period. The community
elected representatives from local organizations to the
council. It came, for many, to symbolize American democratic ideals. Led by a committee which included Rose,
the council’s work was to resolve practical problems, such
as improving the living conditions of black migrant laborers who lived in the “poorer neighborhoods” along the
Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike.
Ernestine Rose led in creating other civic organizations as
well. She founded the Bridgehampton Women’s Association in 1949,[13] published her second book, The Public
Library in American Life, in 1954, and became co-chair of
the Bridgehampton Tercentenary Committee that same
year. Older local residents have fond memories of the pageant she wrote and produced for the celebration. It was
called “Our Goodly Heritage—A
Pageant of Life in Bridgehampton
Over 300 Years” and its sentimental
style stands in stark contrast to Rose’s
analytic library essays. She began,
“We bring you a tale of our East End,
when the land was new….” Performances drew enormous crowds in
late July 1956 to the “Sagaponack
Village Green,” as the Times
reported—and I remember. [14]
Perhaps she was motivated to write
in this style by childhood memories
of a poem about Columbus that she
had recited in 1892 during Bridgehampton’s celebration of the 400th
anniversary of the discovery of America.[15] In any case, the sense of
2010 photo of the library and the Schomburg Center; from 135th St.
The energetic Miss Rose continued to add recognition and
accomplishment to her career. By 1933, she was president of
the New York [State] Library Association, about the time that
the Schomburg Center was hosting a WPA writer’s project.
In 1939, as chairman of the ALA’s Adult Education Board,
she presented the first Library Bill of Rights to the annual
conference. Its tenets reflected Rose’s life’s work, including
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farms.[16] Experiences with diversity, I suggest, coupled
with her family’s positive attitudes toward ethnic groups
may go far to account for Rose’s fierce commitment to social equality in her adult life.
Lumber Lane House where she vacationed and lived during
the 1940s.
history and of past cultures that she communicated, and
her leadership of the Tercentenary, led to her election as
the first president ofthe Bridgehampton Historical Society
in 1956. She was seventy-six.
* * *
In her library career of forty years, Rose redefined the
meaning of branch libraries to neighborhoods within the
New York Public Library system in the largest metropolitan area in the world. Through the programs she supported, her activities in professional organizations,
teaching, and her writings, she worked to improve people’s
lives through access to books. Her people were immigrants,
African Americans, soldiers, the sick, and her students at
Columbia University and elsewhere. Given her particular
focus on the first two of these groups, immigrants and
African Americans, I became curious about possible
sources for her moral impulse toward social activism. I suggest that one source rests with the family and community in
which she was raised.
A unique photograph from the dumpster shows Ernestine’s
uncle, Judge Henry Chatfield, and his family in a formal
portrait with an African American family—parents and six
children—taken, I believe, around 1910. The feeling
projected is of mutual respect and affection. This photo
belonged to Ernestine who kept it all of her life. Moreover,
as a girl in rural Bridgehampton, she would have known
some among the blacks who had journeyed north after the
Civil War, just as she might have interacted with some
among the small group of Irish immigrants that settled in
the hamlet in the late nineteenth century to work on the
Despite her reform impulse and many accomplishments,
two authors, commenting on her impact from the perspective of the 1980s, note that Ernestine Rose’s legacy had
dimmed since the height of her career in the 1920s and ‘30s
when she was widely known within American library circles. When I searched the Suffolk County Library Catalog earlier this year, neither of her books was listed,
including in the Hampton Library’s catalog. Much of the
problem rests, I believe, in the nature of institutional reform, as opposed, say, to political and social reforms which
impact a broader spectrum of the citizenry and are often
widely publicized through the media. In addition, her multicultural ideal may have become even less attractive to
members of minority groups during the cultural upheavals
of the 1960s than it was during the period between the two
world wars. Obviously, a reassessment is overdue. [17]
On the occasion of her library retirement in 1942 and at her
memorial service in 1961, this champion of social uplift was
proudly honored in ceremonies at the Branch, a plaque bestowed upon retirement, testimonials of gratitude delivered.
In 1956, the South Fork Civic Conference presented Miss
Rose with its annual award for “outstanding public service”
for her leadership of the Tercentenary celebration.[18] !
For footnotes on this article please see the Bridghemapton
Historical Society website:
www.bridgehamptonhistoricalsociety.org
Chatfield family with African American family friends, c. 1910
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The Beebe Windmill
Ocean Road and Hildreth Avenue
by John Eilertsen
The Beebe Windmill is named after its first owner whose
last name was sometimes spelled as Beebee. It may be
coincidence that the carved cap on top of the windmill,
called an ogee, resembles a bee hive.
This windmill is one of only eleven remaining on Long
Island, and was originally constructed in Sag Harbor in
1820 by Pardon Tabor, a local woodworker, and Samuel
Schellinger, a local millwright, for Lester Beebe, a retired
whaler and shipbuilder. When completed it was the tallest
structure in Sag Harbor
The Beebe Windmill is an example of a “smock mill”
with a stone foundation and four story tower which is
exceptionally large for a windmill. The gristmill (a building in which grain is ground into flour) is considered one
of Long Island’s more recent mills. Its cast-iron gears,
fantail (the first on Long Island) and combination of wood
and iron shafting and cog-work make the Beebe Windmill
unique as it is the only surviving mill with that combination of characteristics.
Following Beebe’s death, the windmill was sold in 1837 to
Judge Abraham T. Rose and Richard Gelston and was
moved to Mill Hill, now known as the Triangle Commons
behind the Main Street restaurant in Bridgehampton
named One Ocean Road. Over the next forty-five years
the mill was sold and relocated several more times.
In 1882 John A Sandford purchased it and relocated it near
the Bridgehampton railroad station. There he installed a
steam engine enabling the mill to operate even if the wind
was not strong enough. The mill next was purchased by
the Park Commissioner with the intention of moving it to
Prospect Park in Brooklyn. However, he was unable to
transport the mill by train, as was his intention, because of
the many bridges along the railroad line. In 1899 the mill
was purchased by Oliver Osborne who moved it to the
north side of the tracks, near the present Agway.
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In 1914 the windmill was purchased by the Reverend
Robert Davis, and then in 1915 by John Berwind who
moved it to his property “Minden.” In 1935 John Berwind’s
widow had the windmill moved to its final spot, where it
now stands. Not long after that, the property and windmill
were willed by the Berwind estate to the Town of
Southampton in memory of John E. Berwind. In 1978 it
was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and
subsequently received landmark status by the Town of
Southampton.
The Bridgehampton Historical Society serves as the
“Keeper of the Keys” of the Beebe Windmill. The windmill is owned by the Town of Southampton and recently
has undergone restoration to its sails. BHHS makes the
windmill available for self-guided tours several times
during the summer and by special appointment throughout the year !
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Sharing Memories with
Frank and Joan Raynor
by John Eilertsen
Collecting oral histories by asking people to share their
memories of life in Bridgehampton is a wonderful way to learn
the history of our community that seldom gets written about.
As Aldous Huxley once said, “Every man’s memory is his private
literature.” Frank and Joan Raynor took the time to share with
us a portion of their memories about life in Bridgehampton.
“We had quite a few chickens, sometimes as many as 300 and
mostly Rhode Island Reds, and hogs. The only thing my
father would not have was a milk cow because you would be
tied to milking it every day. We were very self-sufficient.
I never knew that there was a Great Depression. We had
everything right there.
“I was born in Southampton but I married a local boy from
Bridgehampton in 1952,” Joan Raynor told me one summer
day in 2006, “and after we were married we lived for seven
years on Mitchells Lane. It was wonderful.” She and her
husband Frank were sitting with me in the Historical Society’s
library, where Frank was sharing his memories of life in
Bridgehampton.
Life in Bridgehampton was quiet back then, Frank recalls, and
one of his favorite pastimes was fishing and boating at Long Pond
behind what is now the Bridgehampton Commons Shopping
Plaza. “We didn’t have to worry too much in those days about the
Game Warden.” When he would catch a string of perch with his
bamboo fishing pole and nothing but worms as bait, Frank would
sometimes share the fish with the hired help who lived on his parents’ farm. “They would often pan fry the fish, or pickle them.”
That local boy, Frank Raynor, was born in a farm house
on Mitchells Lane on February 24, 1931 and grew up in Bridgehampton. His parents and grandparents were still farming
when he was a youngster, and Frank recalled life as a farm boy.
Frank recalls, “I was born early in the day, and when I was
growing up I remember hearing that on that day the neighbors looked over and saw all the lights on at our house, so they
knew their neighbors had a new baby. There were only seven
houses on Mitchells Lane back then and it stayed that way for
another thirty years after I was born, until the 1960’s.”
“We were farmers, and we not only farmed potatoes but we
had a second cash crop consisting of cauliflower, brussel
sprouts, broccoli and so forth. My grandfather and father had
gotten a tractor in the 1920’s but they still kept their horse up
to the 1930’s. My grandfather wanted to keep him in case of an
emergency, but the only thing we used the horse for was to
plow the garden. And I got to ride him bareback all over the
farm. And one of my first memories was when I was four or five
years old and my grandfather and I went out in the fields to
spread the manure. It was wintertime and I was so cold and
wanted to go back inside, but my grandfather wasn’t having
any part of that.”
“The last horse we had was Blackie and when he died he died
in his stall and we had a heck of a time trying to get him out.
And we got permission to bury him on Butter Lane, which was
all woods back then, I often think about the people who built
a house there, and I wonder whether they came across
Blackie’s bones.”
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Long Pond was also a good spot to go hunting. “At that time,
it was all ducks. If anyone shot a goose, well, everybody had to
come see it. Seeing a goose was a rare event. The geese’s flight
pattern around here changed in the 1960’s or ‘70’s, and now
geese are common, but not back then. It was all ducks—Black
Duck, Pintail and Wood Duck. And anything you shot in
those days, you ate. Plenty of pheasants were around, too. That
was all pond shooting, really bad- weather shooting, when the
ducks came into the pond.”
It was rare to see deer back then, too. Even when picking blueberries up on the moraine that lies just north of Scuttlehole
Road, after a forest fire had cleared away brush and trees and
left open meadows where blueberries flourished, folks would
hardly ever see a deer. Frank said “I don’t think I ever saw a
deer up there all the time we were picking blueberries.”
Frank’s grandfather was a butcher and owned Schenck’s Meat
Market, located on Main Street by the bank. “He would
butcher calves and steers and I was allowed to see that. And
there was an old belief, maybe it was German, that when you
butchered a calf or a steer you would drink a little of the blood.
And he would do that. It was surprising to me, to see him drink
that blood. He believed that it was very healthful.”
Frank remembered a man with a truck who came around to
collect the fat and scraps of the butchered animals. It was an
open truck, full of stink and flies. “My cousin, who used to
visit from New Jersey, and I would climb into the back of the
truck just to see what was in there. It was just something a
little boy would have to do.”
But things changed. In the 1960’s houses started to appear in
what had been open fields and wooded lots. Besides the
increase in people and traffic, the deer population exploded.
Joan recalled one experience with hungry deer.
In the 1980’s, Frank and Joan had settled into a home on
Mecox Road, and Frank kept a 3,000 square foot garden.
“Frank loved to do his gardening, and we raised our own
produce out of it. And one night, Frank comes in and says,
‘You know, Joan, tomorrow I think that you can pick the peas,
they’re ready.’ Well, the next morning, Frank goes out to the
garden to check things out and soon comes back in the house
and says, ‘Well I don’t think you need to bother.’ The deer got
there and they must have heard him as he came in the door
and said they were ready to pick ‘cause they ate everything and
just left four-inch shoots.”
Frank also remembered the “Blue Laws” when all businesses
were closed on Sunday. “My grandmother was the daughter of
a Methodist minister and she believed in not doing too much
on Sunday. And if I wanted to go outside as a six or seven year
old, I had to go out the south side of our house and stay out of
her sight to do things.”
One Sunday his father took him up to Rose Hill Road in
Water Mill, and the area was all woods on the west side. “And
there were roads running back into those woods. And lo and
behold, back in those woods there was a clearing, and the
White Eagles and the Blue Sox were playing a game out of
sight. The White Eagles was the Polish team here and the
Blue Sox was the rest of us.”
Sand lot baseball was a favorite pastime in Bridgehampton,
and Frank played with the Blue sox. “People would come and
watch, and we would pass the hat to collect money for our uniforms and equipment. But when television came, local games
lost their following. It was gone.”
As with all of us, Frank’s childhood memories are an important part of his life and of Bridgehampton’s history. He
remembers the Italian organ grinder who came to Bridgehampton by train in the summertime with a monkey, and his
mother telling him “Don’t you get near that monkey, he has
lice.” And Frank remembers Mr. Goldstein, who came around
with a van full of clothes “from suits to bib overhauls, and you
went in the van to look around.”
Frank’s memories are alive with the sights and sounds
and smells of life in Bridgehampton. The archives of the
Historical Society are richer for his willingness to share those
memories. !
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Bridgehampton National
Bank’s 100th Anniversary
by Sally Spanburgh
The Bridgehampton Historical Society was pleased to host
an exhibit upon the Bridgehampton National Bank’s 100th
Anniversary from June 7th to June 18th. This vibrant
community institution officially became 100 years old on
February 19th, 2010. Although the bank has grown impressively over the years, some things have not changed. “A
community bank is not defined by size, but by mission. We
will always be a community bank. Our mission today is
much the same as 100 years ago. We take in local deposits
and invest them back into our neighborhoods,” says Kevin
M. O’Connor, current President and CEO.
In 1895 The Bridgehampton News published an article
describing discussions among local business men about
establishing a bank and went on to express many reasons
why they believed it to be a good idea. “Several places of
less importance have a bank. It would prove a great
convenience to all and, undoubtedly, profitable to the
stockholders,” the newspaper opined. The discussions went
on for years.
In November 1909 a public meeting took place in Firemen’s Hall (later the First Baptist Church, and presently
the Dan Flavin Institute on Corwith Avenue) regarding the
establishment of a new bank with 50 men in attendance.
“George Clarence Topping was elected Chairman and
Elmer J. Thomson Secretary of the meeting. A motion was
made by Henry H. Chatfield and seconded by Theodore
F. Haines, “That we establish a National Bank to be located
in Bridgehampton, to do a general banking business, having a capital of $25,000, consisting of 250 shares of $100
each.” This motion was carried and it was agreed to sell the
shares at $105 each, the $5 per share to be used for organization expenses.” 1 A month later eleven members of the
Board of Directors were chosen who subsequently elected
Henry H. Chatfield as President, G. Clarence Topping as
Vice-President, and Elmer J. Thomson as Cashier. Bridgehampton National Bank was federally chartered in 1910 and
joined the Federal Reserve System in 1914.
The bank was originally located in the one-story eastern
portion of the Ernest C. Loper Store on Main Street
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(Montauk Highway), now Starbucks. That building, built
circa 1903, was originally much more modest looking. The
bank bought it in 1920, and renovated it between 1925 – 1931,
adding a second story to the eastern portion, re-facing it with
dressier brick, and re-styling it into its present Neoclassical
style. The west side was leased to the post office and the upstairs contained a five-room apartment. In 1997 the bank
built their present headquarters at 2200 Montauk Highway.
So who were these original initiators of the bank’s
establishment and subsequently their elected officers?
Henry H. Chatfield (1865-1912) was a descendant of
multiple generations of Bridgehampton Chatfields, an attorney, and later a judge in Southampton. He served as the
bank’s first president from 1910-1912 as well as the President
of the Bridgehampton Board of Education from 1908-1912.
He lived in a Queen Anne style house built circa 1900 with
a turret on the front at 2397 Main Street in Bridgehampton
which is occupied today as an antique and vintage clothing
shop. George Clarence Topping (1844-1921) was a life-long
resident of Sagaponack and a descendant of Thomas Topping, one of Southampton’s original settlers. He was a
member of the Democratic Party, a lawyer, a judge, and
served on the Southampton Town Board as well as numerous other boards. In 1887 he married Mary K. Mulford and
had four children with her: three sons and a daughter.
He owned property near the beach on Daniels Lane, and
lived in the home previously owned by Elihu Howell on
Sagg Street. Elmer J. Thomson (1867-1926) was born in
Delaware, New York, and married a relative of G. Clarence
Topping (another descendant of Thomas Topping), Edna
G. Topping (1868-1929), in 1893 in Bridgehampton. They
had one daughter, Lorraine born in 1895, and also lived on
Sagg Street in the old Lemuel Pierson house which dates
back to well before the Revolution. He was killed when his
car was struck by a train at a crossing early one autumn
morning. His passenger died also. “Both occupants were
hurled more than 75 feet and the automobile was shattered…The momentum of the train carried it a quarter of
a mile beyond the crossing.” 2
Subsequent noteworthy presidents of the bank included
Eugene Sayre (1869-1953) who was one of the original
board members. He was born on Butter Lane and lived in
Bridgehampton all his life. And there was of course the
legendary Merton Tyndall who held the president’s
position the longest to date, over fifty years. At one time the
Bridgehampton National Bank almost merged with The
Long Island Trust Company in Garden City, L.I. “Merton
Tyndall, president of Bridgehampton National, said in a
telephone interview that Long Island Trust had “requested
us to discontinue it, because of a lot of sentiment in this
area against it.” 3
The centennial anniversary exhibit here at the Corwith
House was divided into two sections. The Main Entry Hall
contained the historic portion of the exhibit displaying
documents such an original loan to John C. White to purchase the house and contents of property at 28 Lockwood
Avenue from Roger E. Maran in 1937, official U.S. currency
they printed from 1910 to 1933 that included the name of
their institution, an original deed of 1912 between Adelaide
A., Mortimer H. and Melinda S. Cooper, and Mary H. and
Edward Meyer to Herbert E. Cooper for two parcels of
land, one four acres and another 11 acres both on Job’s Lane
in Mecox (Liber 827 of deeds, page 562), and detailed
original ledgers from the mid 1920s. The other half of the
exhibit was displayed in the Dining Room area of the
Corwith House, sometimes referred to as the Parlor as that’s
where we often hold the “Parlor Series” events. The items
on display in this room exemplified the banks ties to the
community via photographs of the beauty of the East End
and past magazine advertisements highlighting those
they’ve financially assisted such as Christian Wolffer,
deceased owner of Wolffer Estate Vineyards and Sag Pond
Stables, in Sagaponack, and Anna Pump, with her daughter, in purchasing all three of their businesses, Loaves and
Fishes Food Store, Loaves and Fishes Cook Shop, and The
Bridgehampton Inn.
DE P ETRIS
LIQUOR STORE
WINE
SPIRITS
Convienient Location
and Outstanding Service.
2489 MAIN STREET
. BRIDGEHAMPTON
631-537-O287
The exhibit opened the evening of Saturday, June 5th with
a lavish reception under one of those beautiful circus-like
Sperry tents complete with hanging chandeliers in the
interior. It was a warm spring evening complete with music,
refreshments and many notable dignitaries. Here at the
Corwith House, the exhibit ran for two weeks. The Bridgehampton Historical Society was proud to partner with this
national community institution highlighting its past,
present, and future contributions and relevancy in today’s
banking environment. !
Footnotes:
(1) 25th Anniversary, The Bridgehampton National Bank
(2) New York Times, Nov. 23, 1926
(3) New York Times, Sept. 14, 1963
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The Nathaniel Rogers House
Restoration Project Gets Underway!
by John Eilertsen
You may have noticed that something is happening at the
Nathaniel Rogers House on the corner of Montauk Highway
and Ocean Road here in Bridgehampton. Scaffolding has been
erected and we have removed the four 170- year old two-storied
Greek Revival columns from the front porch for restoration later
this year. Even more exciting, the bidding process is about to
begin that will lead to the commencement of Phase One of the
exterior restoration.
We expect the Southampton Town Board to authorize the Town
Clerk to advertise a “Notice To Bidders” at their August 2nd
Town Board Meeting, with the actual bidding process opening
on August 19th. The Town Clerk will accept bids from
qualified contractors until Wednesday, September 15th at 2 pm.
On that day, the sealed bids will be opened and within a week,
after references are checked, the winning contractor will be
announced. Work will begin shortly after.
This current activity follows the Historical Society’s prolonged
but successful maneuvering through the intricacies of New York
State and Town of Southampton rules and regulations while
overseeing multiple phases of architects’ plans and drawings,
exhaustive engineers’ probing and reports, a wood expert’s
analysis and multiple State and Town reviews.
The Nathaniel Rogers House is one of the best examples of
Greek Revival architecture on Long Island, and is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. All restoration work on the
structure must comply with the strictest principles of preservation and restoration philosophy,
and must adhere to the stringent requirements
of New York State’s Office of Parks, Recreation
and Historic Preservation. In addition, all work
must confirm to the Secretary of the Interior’s
Preservation and Restoration Guidelines.
wood railings, balusters and fascia and soffit trim will be installed, and wood trim throughout the exterior will be restored
or repaired. Wood siding will be repaired or replaced, and all
siding and trim work will be painted.
Interior flooring will be carefully removed and stored for reinstallation, and failed plaster walls and ceilings will be removed
in order to allow access for framing for restoration and repair. All
framing will be restored or repaired.
Four “add alternates” are included in the Request For Bids which
will allow us to add additional work within this phase if the total
bids come within budget. The additional work would include
restoration of all windows, dismantling and reconstruction of the
south wing, restoration of the west porch brick floor and columns,
and restoration and re-installation of the four front columns.
If this work is not included in Phase One, it will be scheduled
for Phase Two in 2011, along with rebuilding the cupola and
restoring all exterior doors and shutters. In either case, we expect
that all exterior work on the house will be completed by
Summer 2011. Then we will begin restoration of the interior!
The Historical Society is very grateful to all those who have
supported the Nathaniel Rogers House Restoration Project. We
are also grateful to the Town of Southampton for both their
funding and institutional support, and to New York State’s
Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for their
funding support. !
Phase One work will begin with carefully
excavating the perimeter of the foundation for
shoring, repointing of mortar joints on brick
and stonework and installing perimeter drains.
New foundations for the four front porch
columns will be installed.
The entire roofing system will also be removed
and rebuilt with new lead-coated copper
roofing, built-in gutters and new copper downspouts. All chimneys will be restored. New
34
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The Nathaniel Rogers House, photo copyright 2010 Davis A. Gaffga
Drawing by Jan Hird Pokorny Associates
New BHHS Archives
Established
Art Exhibit and Show
Opens at Archives
In late May this year, BHHS and the Town of Southampton entered into a stewardship agreement for the building just east of
the Nathaniel Rogers House on Montauk Highway. Jack Musnicki had built and occupied the building for his gardening
business, and it was later occupied by Marder’s for their business. In recent years it has stood empty and was part of the land
surrounding the Nathaiel Rogers House that was purchased by
the Town from Jim Hopping in 2003.
From July 3 through September 7 the Archives’ first floor will
house an exciting art exhibition and sale, with a portion of the
proceeds benefitting BHHS.
The Hamptons Library moved into the building while they were
renovating their own building, and they made substantial improvements to the structure. Now that they’ve moved back into
their own library building, it has become the BHHS Archives.
The second floor of the building will be dedicated to our historic documents, photographs, genealogical records and library.
Later this summer it will be open to the public for research and
study on a part-time basis and by appointment.
An opening reception was held on July 3 and over a hundred
well-wishers and a few buyers visited the opening organized by
guest curator Cynthia Loewen.
The summer-long show presents the work of very talented artists
called the Bell’Arte Group whose members consist of group
founder Anna Franklin, Mary Milne, Bob Schwarz, Lynn
Martell, Georjana Macri and Cynthia Loewen.
Also on exhibit is the work of Mary Gardner (BHHS’s Museum
Administrator) with her series in watercolor named “Stones.”
Every two weeks guest curator Loewen has scheduled a series of
visiting artists to be featured in the show.
It promises to be a summer of fine art and culture. Come and
enjoy fine art!
The BHHS Archives is located at 2539-A Montauk Highway
(east of the monument) in Bridgehampton.
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Nathaniel Rogers House Restoration Supporters
(as of July 13, 2010)
Up to $1,000,000
New York State
Town of Southampton
Up to $100,000
Allan Morrow Foundation, Inc.
Up to $50,000
Stephen & Nancy Green
Peter R. & Cynthia K. Kellogg
H. Kevin Miserocchi
Robert Morrow
Leonard Riggio
Dan Shedrick
Jonathan & Lizzie Tisch
Gerrit Vreeland
Up to $25,000
Atlantic Golf Club
Chuck & Norma Baird
Harvey Auerbach
Paul Brennan
Marvin & Dianna Chudnoff
Martha Fritz
Beverly & Leandro Galban
Richard & Zena Gilbert
Richard Goldberg
Charles Lloyd
William Mack
Arthur Nagle
Fred & Cissy Ritz
Andrew Steffan
Thomas Tuft
Nicholas Verbitsky
Raymond Wesnofske
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Up to $10,000
Warren & Lillian Anderson
Bridgehampton National Bank
Cliff Foster
Fredric Garonzik
Albert E. & Bernadette McCoy
Margaret F. McCoy
John A. & Carey Millard
Moore Foundation
Frank Mori
John & Judith Musnicki
David Silfen
Garry & Margaret Southern
John & Carol Stacks
Up to $5,000
Alan and Arlene Alda
Bruce & Anne Babcock
Bridgehampton Lions Club
Fred & Nora Cammann
Leonard Davenport
Anthony Deering
Frederick & Diana Elghanayan
John Horvitz
Hurst Foundation
Jane Iselin
Michael Kochanasz
Francine E. Lynch
Andrea & Doug Madaio
J. Steven Manolis
Joan & John McLaughlin
Naomi Paley
Otis & Nancy Pearsall
Warren & Barbara Phillips
Harvey L. Radler
Kathryn Reis
Arthur & Deborah Romaine
Saner Family Foundation
F.J. B. Schmeltzer
Lowell Schulman
Jim & Julia Shelly
Barbara Slifka
Frederick Stelle
Dennis Suskind
James W. & Julia B. Sykes
Lorenzo & Danielle Weisman
Winston-Salem Foundation
Up to $500
Barbara Albright
George & Anne Baird
William Bourne
Bruce & Martha Brougham
Kenneth H. Buchanan
Julie P. Burmeister
Carrie Crowley
Aaron M. & Judy F. Daniels
Robert & Eileen Essay
Garry Fredrickson
Fred Doss & John Gicking
Kevin & Cheryl Hurley
Stephen G. Jones
Ian & Phyllis MacPherson
Matthew Mallow
Brooke & Daniel Neidich
John Rockwell
Harry E. & Carolyn Schmidt
Frank Schroeder
Up to $100
Jenice Delano
Raemary & John Duryea
Mary & William Groff
In Memory of Mrs. Raymond Hatch
Thomas C. Hills
Ms. Barney L. Jones
Long Island Studies Council
John Michell & David Kaplan
Jeffrey D. Mansfield
Patrick Rulon Miller
Natalie Naylor
Girard F. & Martha Worth Oberrender
Dr. Stanley & Susan Sackner
Samuel's Foundation
Robert Scheinberg
Charlotte Rogers Smith
Bridget A. Stavropoulos
Diane Johnson Wade
Lauren & Andrew Weisenfeld
S UPPORTING THE BHHS
Gift Membership
——————
Gift Memberships are a great idea for family and friends for birthdays and holidays giving.
Simply provide their name and address below and indicate the level of membership you wish to give.
We will let them know this is a special gift from you.
RECIPIENT’S NAME
ADDRESS
PHONE
MEMBERSHIP LEVEL $
CHECK: Please make payable to the Bridge Hampton Historical Society
CREDIT CARD: Please charge my
" MasterCard " Visa " American Express
CARD NUMBER:
EXPIRATION DATE:
AUTHORIZED SIGNATURE
PRINT NAME
INDIVIDUAL
BENEFACTOR
" $25
" FAMILY $5O
" SUPPORTER $1OO
" PATRON $25O
" DONOR $5OO
" $1,OOO " HISTORIAN $2,5OO
" PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE $5,OOO
GIFT GIVER’S NAME
ADDRESS
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OUR MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS
(as of July 15, 2010)
$2,500 and up
Bruce M. Babcock
The Riggio Foundation
$1,000 and up
Beverly Galban
Peter W. Gonzalez
Martin Gruss
George A. Hambrecht
John R. Hearst, Jr.
John A. & Carey Millard
Robert Morrow
Arthur & Deborah Romaine
Gerrit Vreeland
David Walentas
$500 and up
Bridgehampton National Bank
Frederic G. & Nora F. Cammann
Edmund R. & Phyllis B. Davis
Quince Evans
Tony & Beth Galban Foundation
William Hyman
Andrea E. & Douglas D. Madaio
Marders Landscaping
H. Kevin Miserocchi
Peter Reuss
Blanche W. & Robert E. Siegfried
Barbara Slifka
John F. & Carol Stacks
Andrew P. & Patsy Steffan
Tee & Charles Addams Foundation
Lynn Thommen
$250 and up
Alan & Arlene Alda
Lillian C. Anderson
Christie Brinkley
Diane & James Burke
Michael & Shelley Carr
Alfred H. & Mildred B. Conklin
Cooper Family Foundation Inc.
Wahleah Davis
Richard A. & Susan P. Friedman
Martha S. & Frederick M. Fritz
Golden Pear
Habermann Koehn Foundation
Catherine E. Hand
John B. Hoffmann
Jeffrey P. & Betty Sue Hughes
Kevin & Cheryl Hurley
Barbara M. & Richard S. Lane
Samuel F. Lek
Shahara Ahmad-Llewellyn
Michael Longacre
E. Blair McCaslin
Miaco LLC
38
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Nagle Family Foundation
Steven N. Rappaport & Judith A. Garson
Rubin-Henry Family Foundation
Andrew Sabin Family Foundation
Dr. Axel Stawski
Lynne Tarnopol
Sandra B. Taylor
Joseph W. Tyree Landscape Design, Inc.
Jeffrey Vogel
$100 and up
Bruce M. Babcock
Joseph Edmonds & Margaret Brand Bafford
Charles F. & Norma White Baird
Robert H.B. & Dorothy T. Baldwin
Elizabeth Thornton Barton
Douglas Baxter
Joseph P. & Dolores Berhalter
Dr. T. R. Birdwell
Paul Brennan
Gail Maran Brocket
R. Bruce & Martha M. Brougham
Dean Brown
Kenneth H. Buchanan
Walter & Beryl Buchholz
Julie P. Burmeister
Wendy L. Butler
Gabriel P. & Jerilyn Caprio
Larry & Jody Carlson
Kevin Concagh
Benjamin H. Conklin
Laurin Copen Antiques
Carrie & William Terry Crowley
Daniels Family Foundation, Inc.
Leonard & Gail Davenport
Jenice J. & Richard K. Delano
Carol & Michael DeVito
Honnor & R. Meade Dorsey
Colette Smith Douglas
Elizabeth & Donald C. Ebel
Henry & Sandra W. Eckhardt
Kathryn Fee, Architect
First Baptist Church of Bridgehampton
Ruth Foley
Shelly Dunn & Vincent P. Fremont
Jeff Friedman
Earl D. & Catherine I. Gandel
Thomas H. Geismar
Robert & Lois Geller Foundation
Marilyn J. & Saul Ginsberg
John A. & Suzanne F. Golden
Louis Callmann Goldschmidt Family Foundation
Stuart Goode
Mark & Elizabeth Gormley
Joanne & Thomas Gouge
Renate C. Greiner
Louise Guarneri
Douglas M. & Amy S. Halsey
Morton I. & Joan F. Hamburg
Jean R. Held
Dorothy S. Hines
Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons, Ltd.
Stephen G. Jones
J. S. Plumbing & Heating, LLC
Carl E. Kaplan
Audrey S. Katz
Sidney & Helaine Lerner
Marjorie R. Ludlow
Ian K. & Phyllis P. MacPherson
Margaret F. McCoy
W. F. McCoy Petroleum Products
Brian & Pamela McIver
Cathleen G. Miller
Priscilla P. Miller
Walter Curtis Jones & Mary B. Molloy
Denis P. & Carol A. Kelleher
J.G. Kilpatric & Harry Neyens
Henrik & Elaine Taylor Krogius
Joseph V. & Dolores B. Kuch
Pingree W. Louchheim
Jay C. Lubell
Marjorie R. Ludlow
Francine E. Lynch
Morgan & Geri MacWhinnie
Matthew J. Mallow & Ellen Chesler
Nancy H. McCaffrey
Helaine & Charles McKenney
Barbara O. Meyer
Walter R. Miller, Jr.
Louise E. Moos
Morgan Auto Supply, Inc.
Neal & Amanda Moszkowski
Mary M. Mulvihill & Maryann Mulvihill-Decker
George B. & Elinor Munroe
Jack & Judy Musnicki
Daniel M. Neidich & Brooke Garber Foundation
Robert W. & Jane J. Oberrender
Rima Ogrin
Nancy Orshefsky
Robert C. & Joan Osborne
Paler Foundation, Inc.
Naomi & Stuart Paley
Peter C. Papademetriou
George & Antonia P. Pavia
Otis Pratt & Nancy B. Pearsall
Perennial Charm Nursery
Theodore T. Pettus
James M. & Jennifer Pike
Jan Hird Pokorny Associates, Inc.
Cynthia B. Polhemus
Queen of the Most Holy Rosary R.C. Church
Elise Quimby
Jacqueline Rea
Kathryn F. Reis
Judith A. Saner
Thomas E. & Nancy L. Sayre
S.C.A.N. Security Communications
Meriwether C. Schmid
Mark Schwarz
Gloria F. & Alan Michael Siegel
Garry & Margaret Southern
William Squier
Bridget A. Stavropoulos
Dimitri R. & Sophie Stein
Stella Show Management Company
Stelle Architects
Raymond S. & Carol Stolz
Christine & Joseph W. Swanson
James W. & Julia B. Sykes
Jacqueline Szczepankowski
Price & Hollis Steele Topping
John B. & Louisa S. Troubh
James S. & Julia J. Vandermade
W. C. ESP, Inc.
Fred T. Wilford
Paul & Pamela Wilson
World Pie Restaurant
Dolores Zebrowski
$50 and up
Barbara Brown Albright
Stephen W. & Susan M. Baird
Daniel D. Barry
Andre & Paulette Berclaz
Lewis & Amanda Berman
Wlater L. & Bina Bernard
Kathleen & Eileen A. Bovers
Nathan H. & Gloria P. Brown
Susan D. & Donald F. Brown
Joseph J. & Barbara A. Conti
David H. & Nancy G. Cory
Helena W. Crowley
Kenneth David & Barbara Ellen Damiecki
Malcolm & Ilene Davis
Nina C. Rosselli Del Turco
Philippe L. & Edith M. De Montebello
Reynolds E. Dodson
Eileen & Robert J. Essay
J. Kirkpatrick & Jan LeMessurier Flack
Clifford H. & Lee Foster
Garry & Maryann Fredrickson
David B. & Jane Ellen Gerstein
Marshall J. Gluck
Alexander C. Goldsmith
Sara J. A. Gordon
S. Ashby & Patricia DeCarlo Grantham
Gregory Electric Shop of Bridgehampton
R. Graham & Margaret H. Griffin
Patrick J. Guarino
Frederick & Ruth H. Guyer
Janice & Robert A. Hansen
Frederick C. Havemeyer III
Richard G. Hendrickson
Janet B. & Richard H. Hendrickson
Merrall T. & Mary L. Hildreth
Susan Hilty
William C. & Jacqueline M. Horan
John C. & Sandra Horvitz
Yves-Andre Istel
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Dr. Saran Jonas
Michael Kochanasz
Donald L. Kreindler
Dr. Stephen & Judith Levitan
Sandy & Timothy Lewis
Harvey B. Loomis
Gerald W. & Gay S. Lynch
Raymond C. Lynch
Jeffrey D. Mansfield
Robert D. & Anne K. Marshall
Peter & Maria Matthiessen
William F. & Barbara B. McCoy
Jan H. H. & Priscilla C. Meyer
Richard P. & Patricia H. Mohlere
Harry W. & Julia F. Mumford
Natalie A. Naylor
Daniel & Brooke Garber Neidich
Girard F. & Martha Worth Oberrender
Elisabeth Peyton
John & Catherine Dana Pouschine
Edward E. Quimby
Paul C. Raeder & Robert Holley, Jr.
Kinnaman & Ramaekers Inc.
Frederick W. & Evelyn B. Ritz
Alexander J. & Mary Lee Robertson
Elizabeth E. Rogers
Stanley C. Sackner
Ann Sandford
Harry E. & Dr. Carolyn W. Schmidt
Wendy M. Sclight
Rosa Scott
Jane Bishop Seabury
Jeffrey Seller
Spencer E. & Susan R. Sherman
Leland & Marion Smith
Maxine R. Stanley
B. Albert & Rebecca Stern
Anne L. & Robert Stokvis
Barbara & Richard F. Stone
Kathryn P. Szoka & Maryann Calendrille
Joseph W. & Debra M. Taylor
Tutto Bene, Ltd.
Diane & Salvatore Vacca
Anthony S. & Katherine K. Vaccaro
C. Edward Ward, Jr.
Harold P. & Toby A. Weinberger
Henry Weisburg
Lauren & Andrew Weisenfeld
Judy T. & George M. Wheatley
John A. & Patricia J. Wood
Hilary Herrick Woodward
Helene & Manoucher Yektai
Up to $50
Robert & Lynn Grossman Balaban
Charles & Cathy Bellows
Alda R. Benfield
Sidney & Rose H. Berman
Grania Brolin
Huntting W. & Anne F. Brown
Julia F. Cahill
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Marilyn Clark & Jaime A. Lopez
Barbara Clarke
Joseph L. Colt
Richard C. Conrad
John A. Coslick
Dr. Neal J. Cronin
Carol J. Crowley
Edith K. Davis
Dorothy Dayton
John & Marie Degen
Stacy Dermont
Raemary C. & John C. Duryea
Henry T. Ferlauto
Ruth F. Fleming
Barbara White Ford
Stanley D. Friedman
Guy Ladd Frost
Stephen Jay & Ilse Gould
John A. Greco
Richard K. & Bard Rogers Hamlen
Joyce Hamrah
Marlene & Thomas Haresign
Dorothy J. & Albert S. Hedges
Miriam F. Hedges & Ruth H. Guyer
Lucy A.C. Howard
Arline C. Husband
Michael T. Johnson
Roma Karp
Mary & George Kirkham
Peter Klebnikov
Stephen J. & Elizabeth Whelan Kotz
Jill Lohrfink
Pamela S. Lord
Nancy & James Ludlow
Kathrine R. McCoy Architect
Mickey B’s Deli
Ellen Jo Myers
Monroe S. & Evelyn Nadel
Morgia D. Nardy
Girard F. & Martha Worth Oberrender
Roxanne J. Panero
Barbara B. Person
Sandra Powers
Sundy A. Schermeyer
Marla W. Schwenk
Yvonne L. Seidler
Lorraine & Jules Sherman
Saul L. & Judith Sherman
John A. & Bernadette A. Sidebotham
George & Linda Siegel
Barbara Skydel
Charlotte Rogers Smith
Christine Chew Smith
Henry V. & Delores Q. Stuebe
Mrs. Dale Topping
Carol Tutundgy
Laura Lea West
Dorothy Zaykowski
Lloyd P. Zuckerberg