Posts Categorized: ThrowbackThursday

For Your Enjoyment: Our Staff Talent Shows

The creative spirit on Star Island, ever present in our summer programs, is equally ingrained in our summer staff. Before work starts, between shifts, or when a day is over our staff can be found painting on the rocks, strumming their guitars, or taking photographs of the beautiful scenery. Even during work you might find… Read more >

Over Thar

Amongst our artifacts we recently found this poem written by Sewell Hayes. The poem captures the community aspect of Star Island, which has been the hallmark of our summer gatherings since the start of conferences in 1897. The poem is undated, but is most likely from the 1920’s or 30’s based on the year of… Read more >

Star Island Constructs New Buildings in 1953

The middle of the 20th century saw a bit of a building boom on Star Island. Buildings went up made of stone, wood, or both. Some were meant to last, some designed as only temporary. All of these buildings still remain and are put to good use. The year of 1953 saw three buildings completed… Read more >

Historic Wallpaper

Sour cream. On Star Island, that’s not just a condiment for the chili lunch. Sour cream is also the name of the paint used in guest rooms and meeting spaces throughout the island’s 32 buildings. The rooms, often painted by volunteers during the spring, have not always been so uniform. The photos below, shared with… Read more >

Salt Water Pool Once Planned for Island

On July 2, 1969, a letter was sent to Shoalers seeking their opinion regarding a proposed addition to the Star Island grounds. That addition being a salt water pool. This pool, let’s be clear, never came to be, but it did provide ample opportunity for people in the Star Island community to think about such… Read more >

The First Blue Book

Every year we publish a catalog providing a description of the upcoming summer programs on Star Island. With the 2015 program catalog currently at the printers, getting ready for a mid-February arrival in your mailbox, we decided to take a look back in our archives at earlier program catalogs, once called the “Blue Book” for… Read more >

Some Old Notes

We recently came across a pile of work request notes that guests filled out in 2008 and, for a reason we’re not too sure of, were kept in an envelope in our office. Granted, not as exciting as the recent opening of the time capsule left by Samuel Adams in 1795, these almost seven-year-old notes… Read more >

Forty Years of Star Island Newsletters

Before the recent holiday break we sent our latest winter newsletter to the printer. This newsletter will be arriving in your mailboxes before the end of the month. As we prepared the masthead of this latest newsletter, which involves figuring out roman numerals once a year, we discovered that we’ve hit a milestone — 40… Read more >

Softball Throwback

Maybe your favorite Star Island softball team will never make it to the World Series because, well, that’s for professional baseball. But it’s fall, baseball is on our minds, and we’ve uncovered a little bit of Star Island history in the office today as we are going through some of the Vaughn Cottage archives to… Read more >