Beer Festival in the Fire House, August 16, 1974. Courtesy of the Fishers Island Fire Department.
An illustrated lecture by HLFM Director Pierce Rafferty.
Sunday, August 18th, 2013. Time: 4 p.m. Place: Union Chapel.
Now more than ever the subject of Fishers Island’s declining year-round population is a topic of concern and discussion. This “big picture” talk examines the rise and fall of Fishers Island’s population from first European settlement to date with a focus on the factors shaping the numbers in the critical post-WWII period. A question and answer period will follow the talk.
Note: This talk is a repeat presentation of the talk on Sunday, July 7, 2013 at Union Chapel.
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Mansion House Hotel, Fishers Island, NY. Circa 1930s.
Photograph by A.T. LeGere. Museum Collection.
Shuttered after the 1941 season, the Mansion House Hotel never reopened after World War II. The three major additions were torn down in the fall of 1947 and the house (attached at right) reverted to being a private residence. The loss of this and other island hotels had a profound effect on the number of workers employed on Fishers Island in the post war period.
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Primary Grades, Fishers Island, NY. 1916.
Photograph by Edward Quimby. Museum Collection.
The number of students attending grade school on Fishers Island during the decades that preceded World War II was much higher than today. A decline in enrollment was precipitated by the razing of all three major hotels—one in the mid-1920s, one circa 1940, and one in 1947– and the placing of Fort H.G. Wright on inactive status after World War II.
Maintaining and growing the number of students attending school on Fishers Island has been one of the island’s highest priorities for more than three decades.
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Crew of the Fishers Island Ferry S.S. Restless, 1914.
Photograph by Edward Quimby. Museum Collection.
Prior to 1947, the Fergusons’ private Fishers Island Navigation Co. owned and ran the island’s ferries. The crews were based on the island with many living on Madeline Ave., a street once known as “Steamboat Row.”
