Island History

The Lyles Beach Hotel: The Center of Fishers Island’s Brief Flirtation with Tourism

By |2024-05-22T15:06:10-04:00May 22nd, 2024|Island History, Newsletter 2024|

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

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Island History: Movie Pond

By |2023-06-14T13:18:01-04:00June 14th, 2023|Island History, Newsletter 2023|

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

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Island History: The Morning After—Letter describing 1938 Hurricane on Fishers Island

By |2022-05-27T08:47:16-04:00May 27th, 2022|Island History, Newsletter 2022|

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

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Island History: Moose on Fishers Island

By |2021-05-28T09:13:04-04:00May 27th, 2021|Island History, Newsletter 2021|

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

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James S. Casey: Fishers Island’s First Resident Photographer

By |2020-05-28T18:10:22-04:00May 28th, 2020|Island History, Photo Gallery|

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

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Claypit Views and Brickyard Maps

By |2020-05-28T13:53:00-04:00May 28th, 2020|Island History, Photo Gallery|

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.

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Island History: Fishers Island in the Revolutionary War

By |2020-06-02T16:27:43-04:00May 2nd, 2020|Island History, Newsletter 2020|

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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FIHS Basketball

By |2020-05-29T23:37:04-04:00April 9th, 2020|Island History, Photo Gallery, School|

Fishers Island High School Basketball Over Time FIHS Basketball Year unknown: L to R: Harry Devitt (kneeling), Harley Woods (standing), Frank Berrian (sitting), ___?, Chadwick (sitting) H. Middleton (standing), J. Pyle (kneeling) 1929 FIHS Girls Basketball STANDING: Majorie Wood, Dorothy

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Remembering the Mystic Isle

By |2020-05-16T20:43:41-04:00February 24th, 2020|Island History, News|

Mystic Isle underway and approaching Silver Eel Cove Remembering the Mystic Isle We Fishers Islanders love our ferries, and those of us who are “of a certain age” wax particularly poetic over the M/V Mystic Isle, remembered fondly from our childhoods with its red leather seats, muraled walls and quirky onboarding midship. It

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ANNUAL EXHIBITION 2023

Untitled
F.I. Sketchbook 2005

THE SKETCHBOOKS OF CHARLIE FERGUSON

In the full sweep of Fishers Island’s history, there is no artist more synonymous, more closely associated with Fishers Island than Charles B. “Charlie” Ferguson. The main show features images from two of Charlie's sketchbooks which functioned as illustrated diaries that were filled with daily activities, nature observations, personal notes, and lots of art—drawings, sketches, and watercolors—in various states of completion.

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