Island History How the Museum Grew with Its Collections by Pierce Rafferty, HLFM Director Adding History to the First Museum The Museum was founded in 1960 to honor prominent Fishers Island civic and business leader Henry L. Ferguson. Originally located in a rented 600-square foot storefront in Baker Cottage, across from today’s
Early History of the Catholic Church on Fishers Island by Pierce Rafferty While researching within online newspaper archives, I recently stumbled upon a July 1893 article whose headline caught my eye: “A Hundred Years Since Mass Was Celebrated on Fishers Island.” The article recounted that Father Daniel Sheehy of St. Ambrose Catholic Church, Brooklyn,
Island History The Lyles Beach Hotel: The Center of Fishers Island’s Brief Flirtation with Tourism by Pierce Rafferty Excursion ferry SS Block Island at Lyles Beach dock, c.1885. Since the first settlement of Fishers Island by John Winthrop in the 1640s, Fishers Island has undergone two
Island History by Pierce Rafferty Aerial showing eastern edge of former Fort H.G. Wright parade ground. Photo courtesy of Google Earth. The pond at center left, originally named “Lake Ladd,” was later nicknamed “Movie Pond.” Note the ditch, first cut by the US Quartermaster Corps circa 1908, that utterly failed to drain the
Island History: The Morning After—Letter describing 1938 Hurricane on Fishers Island by Letitia Rogers Revett Editor’s note: In April 2022, the Museum received a generous and thoughtful gift of Fishers Island-related documents and ephemera from Janice Revett Lloyd, whose parents, Letitia and Harley Revett, were teachers at the Fishers Island School from the
Island History: Moose on Fishers Island by Pierce Rafferty Colonial records indicate that in the early 1700s, just over three hundred years ago, moose could be found on Fishers Island. Then, as now, inhabitants of our region would have been shocked to bump into a live “moose-deere,” for Fishers Island was well south of
The history of Fishers Island can be experienced one step at a time when walking the Brickyard Pond Trail in the L.F. Boker Doyle Sanctuary and the Clay Pit Trail.
James S. Casey’s cottage and photography studio, Fishers Island, N.Y., circa 1918. This cottage is today painted a distinctive blue and sits at the base of the hill across from the former Grebe/Stern house. James S. Casey: Fishers Island’s First Resident Photographer James S. Casey, Fishers Island’s first resident photographer, lived in
Claypit Views and Brickyard Maps From The History of Brickmaking on Fishers Island At its height in the 1880s, the brickyard on Fishers Island was one of the largest in the Northeast—some claimed the entire country—with a production capacity of 18 million bricks per annum.
ISLAND HISTORY Fishers Island in the Revolutionary War by Pierce Rafferty “Genl. Howe Evacuating Boston,” engraving by J. Godfrey, circa 1861. Museum Collection. The first rumblings of the American Revolution reached our shores in late May 1773, some six months before the Boston Tea Party. According to an account published in a
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F.I. Sketchbook 2005
