CURATOR'S CORNER - East Hampton Historical Society Newsletter September 2022

This summer I had the great pleasure of working with two of our trustees, Frank Newbold and Rip Georges, to curate the East Hampton Historical Society’s first exhibition since the start of the pandemic. While performing preliminary research to discover more information about the items we planned to place on display, I came across a curious mystery that we are now hoping some of our members can shed additional light on.

The first Meeting House was built in East Hampton in 1649. Colonial meeting houses were essential structures within communities and served as communal places where residents could gather to discuss important matters, conduct business, and hold religious services. A new church building was erected to replace this older thatched roofed structure in 1717. Known to residents as the “1717 Church,” it was the only church in East Hampton for much of the town’s early history and stood approximately where Guild Hall is today.

East Hampton’s Presbyterian Church underwent many renovations during its long history, but our mystery begins a few short decades after the 1717 construction. One of the objects featured in our exhibit is the diagonal dial clock face from the clock tower added, along with a steeple, to the building’s exterior during a 1735 makeover.

An article in the Sag Harbor Express on March 15, 1866, appears to support local lore that the renovation occurred in 1735. Yet according to curatorial records dating back to the 1980s here at the Historical Society, the clock’s inner mechanics were built by colonial craftsman Obadiah Frary (1717-1804). Noted as the first clockmaker in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts, Frary began his trade in 1745— making it likely that the church renovation occurred in 1753.

What we do know for certain is that the clock’s installation date was painted in the four corners of the dial. Whether the date reads 1735 or 1753 remains to be determined!

Do you think the date reads 1735 or 1753?

Do you have any additional information that can help us solve this mystery? Please weigh in on the discussion on our social media sites or by contacting me, Jaime Karbowiak - Collections Manager. You can also view the clock face and works at Clinton Academy through September 11, 2022.