East Hampton's 'ladies' prepare for fair

In East Hampton Village, the "ladies" are prepping for their fair on July 30 -- one that has proved worthy of its elegant setting for more than a century.

There will be games for the children, music, tables of crafts and jams on sale, and a big barbecue at the end of the day.

The barbecue will be in the sunken garden of the Gardiner Brown house on Main Street, which dates to 1876 -- a garden which normally provides a quiet place for people in the village to escape the trendy streets and sit down in the shade to read, chat, or just think.

It's what many in the village expect from the Ladies' Village Improvement Society of East Hampton, which has been gently taking care of its community for 116 years.

The society formed in 1895, and the fair began a year later. Nancy Andrews, the group's president, speculated that members were just too busy the first year to organize and hold a country fair. Its first event was a New Year's Eve supper fundraiser in 1895. Except for two years, there has been an annual event ever since, though it has been held at society headquarters only since 1990.

Long history of success

The society awards scholarships, runs a thrift shop, maintains trees and helps make the village more attractive, but it began with only a few modest goals.

Its first fundraiser was to pay people to water down the village's dusty streets, sweep the crosswalks, clean up around the Long Island Rail Road station and install oil lamps on Main Street, then hire someone to light them each night.

But the society has evolved. A century ago, the ladies took over maintenance of the village green and the village's trees -- protecting the stately Dutch Elms from disease is an ongoing task -- and in 1925 the society lobbied for zoning and to keep gas stations off Main Street. It won both battles.

The one-day country fair is its biggest fundraiser. If the weather is good, more than 5,000 people will attend, with the crowd seemingly limited only by available parking space.

The society won't project how much money it will make at the fair, but said that scores of people pitch in to help.

"Everything we get is donated," said Mary Anna Jun-Morris, the group's general director. "There are homemade jams and jellies, local arts and crafts [and] clothing . . . the merchants here are wonderful."

Different kind of fair

There will also be a raffle for various prizes, including a woman's watch, a framed print and tickets to the Guild Hall Night of Stars reception. The society's 350 members are each selling three books of tickets, for $2 each or six for $10. And, there will be a poster booth -- the annual posters by local artists for the fair are considered collectibles, Jun-Morris said.

A real old-fashioned country fair -- which is how the society describes its big annual event -- takes on a special meaning in East Hampton Village, where a brief walk from the sunken garden will take someone past Tiffany & Co., the Vered Art Gallery and Elie Tahari Ltd. clothiers.

Still, there are some things that distinguish the event from most other summer fairs. While the fair has had a merry-go-round, it draws the line at bringing in other rides. This year, for example, Jun-Morris turned down an offer of a fun house.

"We're an old-fashioned fair," she said. We don't want to be a carnival."

Andrews agrees. "I had a woman come up to me and say, 'Don't ever change this fair. It's just amazing,' " she said.

Among the projects the fair helps to pay for are 21 scholarships totaling $100,000 for high school seniors and a pair of female college students returning to school, maintenance of a nature trail on Davids Lane and the care of 3,700 village trees.

To prepare for the fair, which takes many months of planning, the society headquarters at 95 Main St. turns into a combination warehouse, meeting hall and combat headquarters. There are racks of clothing to price, stacks of toys and ceramics to review before they are put out on tables, and months' worth of logistical planning for placement of people and tents.

It takes scores of volunteers to do the work, including several men who work as volunteers for the society. Even coordinating the volunteers has become a big project.

"Our committee chairwomen work really hard," Andrews said.

Saving imperiled trees

East Hampton Village Administrator Larry Cantwell says the society has been a partner with the village in Dutch Elm preservation since the 1960s, and over the years the loss of those trees has dropped from 10 to 20 a year to just one or two.

"They played a role in our sign legislation, in beautification and historic preservation . . . they're really well-regarded," he said.

The village's only official role in the fair is to provide traffic control officers, but Cantwell said that service is regularly provided for big events in the village.

The Ladies' Village Improvement Society Fair has been a constant in East Hampton far longer than any current resident has been alive. It was canceled only twice -- once in 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, and again in 1942, when it was replaced with a fashion show featuring inexpensive Sears clothing and a War Bride theme.