By Annette Hinkle
Summer on the East End is for beachgoers, and while nearby Sagaponack and Bridgehampton may boast the wide open vistas of the Atlantic Ocean, here in Sag Harbor, Long Beach has long been a favorite spot by the sea.
Head out on any summer morning (especially this week with temperatures nearing 100 degrees) and it’ll be easy to see why. A sandy crescent that connects Noyac to North Haven, the nearly two mile stretch of beach offers room for all. It’s a gentle bay beach where youngsters learn to swim and sail, a favored morning route for walkers, and energetic dogs just can’t seem to get enough of the place. It’s been that way for decades with successive generations of families coming to Long Beach to enjoy campouts, meals and seaside antics.
Lovers of all things Long Beach will be happy to know that The Sag Harbor Historical Society is currently featuring an in-depth look at the popular bathing beach. Curated by Jean Held and Dorothy Zaykowski, the exhibit offers a comprehensive look at Sag Harbor’s favorite place to relax — from its earliest days of recorded human history, right up to kids seining for blow fish with Al Daniels.
Expect to see photos of familiar faces and names (like Bucking, Edwards, Youngs, Liccardi and Mulvihill) as well as others lost to history, and revel in reminiscences of places like McNally’s, the Noyac Casino and the Shack — a beachside food stand where 14-year-old Vincent Alioto sold ham sandwiches made the night before at home. Chock full of information about how the stretch of sand came to be a public beach, the exhibit also offers a look at history rife with intrigue and squabbles over property rights. Long Beach was also where residents once gathered eelgrass by the wagonful to insulate houses (Bridgehampton farmer Richard Hendrickson offers a memory of doing just that with his grandfather), the Bliss Torpedo Company tested its product in the days leading up to World War I and after World War II, exuberant couples danced the night away at beachside clubs.
Like many exhibits at the Sag Harbor Historical Society, this show was inspired by Annie Cooper Boyd, the woman who once owned the historical society’s headquarters and who painted Sag Harbor scenes in the late 19th and early 20th century – including several of Long Beach where she enjoyed sails and seaside picnics with friends and family.
“What we discovered was everything we do comes from Annie’s pictures,” explains Held. “She had a very close association with Long Beach. She brought her family there, and [her daughter] Nancy Wiley also had a close association. They camped at Wickatuck.”
“Wickatuck” or “Weckatuck” as the Native Americans referred to it, was at the western edge of Long Beach and its springs were alleged to have curative powers. The area held special meaning for those earliest residents.
There’s a lot of “then and now” in the exhibition, and in a chapter reminiscent of the recent blocking of a beach access in Bridgehampton by a homeowner, Held notes that in 1888, Long Beach landowner Charles Lamont became embroiled in a similar controversy. Just like now, the “newcomer” did little to endear himself to his “local” neighbors.
Zaykowski explains that when the North Haven toll bridge was built, the road across Long Beach became the cheap way to get to Sag Harbor. Many North Haven residents opted to use the passing highway, as it was called, to get into the village. But Lamont wasn’t happy about it so he blocked the road with boulders near the eastern end to prevent its use.
“He actually arrested his neighbors on North Haven, the Payne brothers,” says Held. “They were hired by Southampton Town to clear the road. Lamont sent them off to Riverhead where they hung out for four days until the judge said, ‘There’s no case against you, you can leave now.’”
Eventually, savvy ferry operators realized they could make a living by taking people from Sag Harbor Village over to Long Beach via the cove.
“There are some very funny stories about ferry rides over from the village,” says Held. “A couple of them sunk. They kept having these accidents. People would come from less than a mile away and they’d get home at midnight because something would break down on the boat and they had to wait until it would drift to shore. People got fed up with that situation and they got this very fancy ferry that was supposed to be reliable. On its first trip out, it sunk the other ferry.”
Held adds that at the time, eelgrass was so abundant in the bay and coves that it often became tangled in the propellers of the ferries, causing many of the breakdowns.
Seaweed, indeed, plays a big part in the exhibit, and again, it was Annie’s artwork — this time cards with dried seaweed artfully arranged on them — that led to inspiration. Displayed cleverly in a dresser with pull out specimen drawers, the exhibit includes the expertise of Dr. Larry Liddle of Stony Brook Southampton who identified all of Annie’s collection with botanical names.
“We discovered them in a box, they had never been shown before,” explains Held of Annie’s seaweed collection. “Before that time, they’d been up in the attic steaming away.”
While the nature of Long Beach is certainly fascinating, for people of a certain generation it will be the 1940s and nights at the Noyac Casino (formerly McNally’s) that brings back some of the best memories. There was no actual gambling at the casino, notes Zaykowski, which was first named “Orlando’s” and then “Lenny’s,” just food, drinks, dancing and a place to have fun with friends.
“They’d go dancing after World War II,” explains Held. “The Mulvihills told me how they didn’t have much money, so they’d buy two beers for four people and split two orders of French fries and dance all night.”
Later, the property became the Salty Dog and the Waterside, a catering hall where many a Sag Harbor couple tied the knot. Today, it is a condominium complex with stellar water views.
Of course, had it fallen into private hands along the way, Long Beach wouldn’t be the public treasure it is today. Held notes the Foster family can be thanked for that. When Charles Lamont’s heirs didn’t pay taxes on the property, Clifford Foster of Bridgehampton bought it and willed it to his two sons upon his death in the 1940s. In 1950, in keeping with their father’s wishes, they deeded it to Southampton Town, and it was renamed Foster Memorial Beach. The plaque on the large rock at Long Beach commemorates the gift, but Held notes there was never a ceremony to mark the occasion. So on August 21 at 10 a.m., the historical society will make good by hosting a dedication to officially thank the Foster family for its gift to the community, 60 years after the fact.
And afterwards? Why not cool off by taking a dip in the bay?
“History of Long Beach” is on view at the Sag Harbor Historical Society (174 Main Street, Sag Harbor) Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. through September 12.
Top: A postcard of McNally's on Long Beach, circa 1920s.
