Bridgehampton Historical Society displays Depression-era pictures

The Great Depression and the current economic recession have more than a few parallels—money was tight and the national economy was in the tank—but the 1930s in Bridgehampton was actually a time of growth.

The resemblance between today’s recession and the Depression spurred the Bridgehampton Historical Society to create its new exhibit, “Images of Bridgehampton’s Main Street: The Great Depression Era,” which features photographs of the hamlet from the 1930s. But in putting the exhibition together, curators Julie Greene, a librarian and local historian at the Hampton Library, and Stacy Dermont, the program director of the Bridgehampton Historical Society, found that there was a good deal of change happening on Main Street from 1930 until 1938, when the devastating unnamed hurricane of that year wound up serving as the catalyst that set the hamlet back on the path to complete economic recovery.

“There are a lot of parallels between the two,” Ms. Greene said about the current economic recession and the Great Depression. The women noted that there are many older model—meaning 1920s vintage—cars in the pictures, evidence of the hard times when most people couldn’t afford to buy a new car.

But unlike the empty storefronts and slow business that are the hallmarks of today’s recession, there was actually a good deal of business in Bridgehampton in the 1930s, explained Ms. Greene.

“At this time, people were moving their homes off of Main Street,” she said, and businesses were taking their place.

A number of storefronts were being constructed in front of the homes that lined Montauk Highway, turning it into the commercial center it is today, she explained.

In addition to the stores being constructed, there were also many new gas stations built in the hamlet, heralding the popularity of the automobile, in spite of the inability to buy the latest models, the curators explained.

The 35 pictures illustrating the 1930s in Bridgehampton will be on display from February 8 through May 14 at the historical society headquarters at the Corwith House on Main Street. Admission to the show is $5 and, while winter hours are in effect, the exhibit is available for perusing from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Ms. Dermont said that some senior citizens who remember the Great Depression in Bridgehampton—including Richard Hendrickson—may be stopping by the historical society to give talks on what times were like back then.

And the historical society will also be hosting a tour of Main Street, beginning at the historical society’s headquarters at the Corwith Homestead, on April 24 at 11 a.m.

Ms. Greene and Ms. Dermont said that Main Street in the 1930s is especially interesting because most of the people who vacation in Bridgehampton did not begin coming out until in the 1950s. That wave of the East End summer colony never knew the hamlet in the 1930s.

As Ms. Greene explained, “A lot of people came to vacation here in the 1950s, so this will show them how it was.”

Bridgehampton was a much different place in the 1930s, the curators explained. Main Street, which is lined with luxury shops and well-known restaurants today, was much more sparsely populated. There was an Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company store, one of the supermarkets of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, the umbrella corporation for the A&P and then Pathmark and Waldbaum’s stores of today. Ms. Dermont explained that Wick’s Tavern, one of the most historic buildings in the hamlet, still overlooked Main Street in the 1930s. But the building, which stood on the site where the beverage store at the corner of Main Street and the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike is now located, was torn down and sold to the highest bidder.

“That was also a function of the Depression,” Ms. Greene said.

The Candy Kitchen, located at the corner of Main and School streets, was also up and running through the Depression, according to an article by Ann Sandford titled “The Historic Buildings on Bridgehampton’s Main Street,” which both Ms. Greene and Ms. Dermont said helped serve as an inspiration for the exhibit.

Artifacts and records showing workers’ wages and how residents were still able to make donations despite the widespread loss of savings and disposable income will also be shown in the exhibit, Ms. Greene said.