Star Island

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Coordinates: 42°58′36″N 70°36′50″W / 42.97667, -70.61389

For other places with the same name, see Star Island (disambiguation).

Star Island Chapel

Star Island is one of the Isles of Shoals, located seven miles off the coast of New Hampshire in the Atlantic Ocean. It is owned and operated by the Star Island Corporation as a religious and educational conference center, with close ties to the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ. Week-long conferences include the Arts, Natural History, Religious Education, International Affairs, Science and Religion, as well as six family conferences and three conferences for youth (some conferences will operate simultaneously) which change their theme from year to year.

1 History
2 Star Island today
3 Conferences
4 External links

[edit] History

East Rock c. 1912

Star Island was first settled, as were all the Isles of Shoals, in the early 1600s by fishermen working the rich waters of the North Atlantic coast. Many were English, coming up from the colonies of the Virginia companies. Although there may have been shelters built on the island, none were permanent or year-round.

The first permanent settlement of Star Island began in 1677 when the Province of Maine, under Massachusetts rule, undertook to increase taxes on nearby Hog (now Appledore) Island. That and the recent availability of housing on Star Island, which was in New Hampshire, caused a mass migration and in 1715, the township of Gosport, New Hampshire, was established on Star Island.

The town and the island flourished until the American Revolutionary War when the colonials ordered the Shoals evacuated, believing that having a group of questionable loyalty just off the coast posed a threat. Many shoalers abandoned their island homes shortly thereafter.

After the war, some moved back to Gosport, but it never achieved its former population. Thomas Laighton established a hotel on Smuttynose Island and eventually a much larger one, the Appledore Hotel, on Hog, which he renamed Appledore Island. They were so successful that in 1873 another entrepreneur, John Poor, built a hotel on Star Island, the Oceanic Hotel by joining a cluster of Caswell family buildings with a long wooden veranda. When the first Oceanic burned in 1875 soon after it was built, owner John Poore reconfigured the surviving buildings into a second Oceanic Hotel. The largest, the former Atlantic House, had been run by Lemuel Caswell. Another, the Gosport House, was once run by Lemuel's brother Origen Caswell.

The Oceanic Hotel in c. 1910

It was a golden era for island hotels. Air conditioning had yet to be invented and the cool sea breezes were a perfect escape from the hot summers of Boston and New York. But the resorts in the mountains of New Hampshire and New York were growing and did not involve a potentially unpleasant sea voyage. By the 1890s the hotels were nearly empty.

Then, in 1896, Thomas Elliott and his wife Lilla arrived on Star Island. They immediately saw in the lightly-occupied hotel a place where summer conferences could be held, to be sponsored by the Unitarian Church, of which he was a member. He made a deal with the manager to "fill the place to the ridge-poles" the following year, and then went back to the mainland to make good on his promise. He met with the Unitarians in Boston and then, just to make sure, he went across the street and made a deal with the Congregationalists. The following summer, he had so many at the conference that the staff was sleeping in the bathrooms.

The conferences continued and, in 1915, the Isles of Shoals Summer Meeting Association which Elliott had organized bought the hotel and the island, forming the Star Island Corporation.

[edit] Star Island today

Sunset at the Oceanic Hotel

Thomas Elliott's original conference still meets today, as the Conference on International Affairs, as do a dozen or more other conferences. The Island is like a self-sufficient town, producing all its own water and electricity. There are three separate water systems on the island — drinking water, cistern water for washing, and sea water for sanitary use. The island has its own septic treatment plant, one of the few capable of handling salt water, and a reverse osmosis water purification system for converting sea water to drinking water. The island is staffed by a crew of 90 young adults, mostly college students, termed "Pelicans," who live on Star Island for the summer and do everything from transporting luggage to washing dishes, painting buildings, weeding, and making beds.

On Star Island there are multiple hotel buildings, the largest of which is the Oceanic Hotel. There is a marine lab, a floating dock often used by swimmers, two tennis courts, two playgrounds, the "Kiddie Barn" where childcare services are given, an old stone chapel, a scenic gazebo termed the Summerhouse, Vaughn Cottage where the historical records are kept, and beautiful scenery all around. The sunsets are breathtaking; those viewed from the Summerhouse and from the Oceanic's front porch are famous.

Transportation to Star Island was with the steamship Thomas Laighton out of Portsmouth, NH from 1985 through 2004 but starting in 2005 it began to use The Captain's Lady from Rye, NH, causing conference day change-overs to be made in two trips. Day trips are possible and information about boat schedules can be found on the island's website. [1]

The Star Island conference center is owned and operated by the Star Island Corporation, a not-for-profit United States Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) membership organization incorporated in the state of Massachusetts The corporation also is charged with preserving the Isles of Shoals for future generations. It is affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ.

The town of Rye prevented the conference center on Star Island from opening on its usual schedule in early June, 2007, due to fire safety concerns. In late July, the Fire Marshal said there were no longer issues to prevent the conference center from opening, and the island opened for visitors in late July, with conferences resuming in early August.

[edit] Conferences

Conferences at Star Island last from two days to a full week and may overlap other conferences. Those in June and July, plus LOAS in August, tend to have a Unitarian Universalist orientation, while those marked "UCC" are affiliated with the United Church of Christ. Other conferences may or may not have a particular religious orientation.