Treasure Lost
Michael Heller, a third-generation resident of the East End - is relocating to Greece!
Heller is a photojournalist, documentary photographer, a long-time member of the Hook & Ladder Co. #1 for the East Hampton Fire Department, and the Staff Photographer for the Sag Harbor Express. As such, he has documented Sag Harbor's history in the making.
As Sag Harbor's landscape has been renovated, repurposed and preserved, Heller has been on hand to document four significant, recent projects.
Between 2011 and 2016, Heller photographed the renovation and construction of the John Jermain Memorial Library; the images of which can be found in its archives.
In 2011, Heller was onsite as the four-year project to laboriously convert the lifeless Bulova Watchcase Factory into condominiums began. He documented this event from start to finish in his book Watchcase - The Story of A Rebirth.
On that frigid day in December 2016, Heller was on the scene as a firefighter and then photographer when the building at 90 Main Street, which houses our iconic Sag Harbor Cinema, burned for hours on end. This event he documented in a book entitled A Phoenix Rises - The Fall and Rise of the Sag Harbor Cinema.
And, most recently, Heller was on hand to document the renovation of Long Wharf, from beginning to end, which he documented in A Short History of Sag Harbor's Long Wharf.
Sag Harbor's history in the making ... all documented and preserved by Michael Heller's unique images and words. Heller has given so much to our small village - he is a treasure - one who will be sorely missed.
Michael will not be embarking on this new adventure alone. He will be joined by another Sag Harborite - Jackie Marks, who once served as the Historical Society's archivist before taking a position with the Amagansett Library. Their departure will leave a hole in our small village, one that will not be filled anytime soon. We wish them all the best for their future.
"May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The Rain Fall Soft Upon Your Fields."
A Traditional Irish Blessing
Michael Heller received our Sag Harbor Historical Society 2018 Dorothy Ingersoll Zaykowski Award for Contributions to the Appreciation and Preservation of Sag Harbor History. Photographed here with Jack Youngs, the then-President of SHHS and Nancy French Achenbach, our current President.
