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==Landmark structures== The hamlet's three major landmarks are the Mackay Radio Tower, the Art Barge, and the Smith Meal Fish Factory. ===Mackay Radio Tower=== The Mackay Radio Tower is the last of two towers (originally {{convert|300|ft|m}} high and {{convert|1000|ft|m}} apart) that were used to transmit international point-to-point radio communications starting in 1927. At the height of [[World War II]] the tower was used for responding to upwards of ten [[SOS]] calls a day from ships at sea.<ref>{{cite web |title=Wireless History |url=http://longislandgenealogy.com/Wireless/Wireless.html |access-date=2009-08-19}}</ref> The tower had somebody on site 24 hours a day, but the actual transmissions were keyed from [[Southampton (village), New York|Southampton]]. The towers toppled during the [[Great 1938 Hurricane]]. At 12:35 pm. on January 28, 1961, an [[American Airlines]] [[Boeing 707]] Flight 1502 (Flagship Oklahoma) with an engine on fire nosedived over the towers before crashing about {{convert|300|yd}} off the Napeague coast, killing all six aboard. The plane had been on a training flight from [[Idlewild Airport]]. An often repeated story says the plane clipped one of the towers, but ''The New York Times'' account of the crash says it just missed the towers.<ref>{{cite news |title=6 Die as Jetliner Crashes Off L.I. on Training Flight |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1961/01/29/archives/6-die-as-jetliner-crashes-off-li-on-training-flight-flaming-plane.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 29, 1961 |page=1 |access-date=2011-09-21}}</ref> The Mackay towers were decommissioned in 1984,<ref>{{cite web |title=Radio Facilities on Long Island |url=http://www.mackayhistory.com/Mackay_Radio_2.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120903183351/http://www.mackayhistory.com/Mackay_Radio_2.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=September 3, 2012 |access-date=2009-08-19}}</ref> and its underlying land is now part of [[Napeague State Park]]. One of the towers was torn down. The remaining tower is used for communication purposes by the [[New York State Police]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Rather |first=John |title=Eyesore Or Not, A Tower Is Likely |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 30, 2006 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3DD133FF933A05757C0A9609C8B63 |access-date=2009-08-30}}</ref> Its flashing white lights were once visible throughout the area but haven't been operational in a year or two. ===The Art Barge=== The Art Barge is the home of the Victor D'Amico Institute of Art. [[Victor D'Amico]] was Director of Education for the [[Museum of Modern Art]] from 1937 until 1969. In 1955 the department had begun art classes at Ashawagh Hall in [[Springs, New York]]. D'Amico, looking for a permanent home, worked with local baymen to beach a retired World War II barge at its current location just northeast of the Mackay Towers. A summer outpost of MoMA's Institute of Modern Art, it was for a time called the Kearsarge Art Center, for a Native American word meaning "place of heaven". A second story was added in 1961. It was re-chartered as the Napeague Institute of Art in 1973 and finally renamed the Victor D'Amico Institute of Art, after its founder, in 1981. However, the popular name of "Art Barge" stuck. [http://www.theartbarge.org The Art Barge] operates June through September. A complement to The Art Barge is the Mabel and Victor D'Amico Studio and Archive, the former home of Victor and his wife, the artist teacher Mabel Birckhead D'Amico, found across Napeague Harbor on the Lazy Point peninsula.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of the Art Barge |url=http://www.theartbarge.com/?page_id=15 |access-date=2010-10-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100722211524/http://www.theartbarge.org/?page_id=15 |archive-date=2010-07-22 }}</ref> ===Smith Meal Fish Factory=== The Smith Meal Fish Factory in Promised Land was a plant that processed [[menhaden]] fish for [[fish meal]]. It was owned by Otis Smith and produced 20β30 million fish a year from June to October and had its own flag stop on the [[Long Island Rail Road]] for employees only. After a drop in the supply of menhaden, Smith closed the plant in 1969 along with plants at [[Lewes, Delaware]], and [[Crab Island, New Jersey]]. The plants were consolidated at [[Port Monmouth, New Jersey]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Sherrill |first=E.L. III |title=Recalling Captain Norman |newspaper=The East Hampton Star |date=April 12, 2007 |url=http://www.easthamptonstar.com/DNN/Default.aspx?tabid=1896 |access-date=2009-08-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929125046/http://www.easthamptonstar.com/DNN/Default.aspx?tabid=1896 |archive-date=September 29, 2007 }}</ref> Next to the Smith meal plant is a private marine finfish hatchery, Multi Aquaculture Systems, founded in 1976 by Dr. Robert J. Valenti, and a small restaurant.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rattiner |first=Dan |author-link=Dan Rattiner |title=Historic Napeague Chimney May Be Taken Down |newspaper=Dan's Papers |date=June 12, 2009 |url=http://www.danshamptons.com/content/danspapers/issue12_2009/07.html |access-date=2009-08-30 }}{{dead link|date=February 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The closed Smith Meal Fish Factory was sold to [[The Nature Conservancy]], who transferred it to the State Parks Commission. Napeague State Park was the subject of an ongoing court battle about whether it should be used as a dock for the [[Cross Sound Ferry]] for a car ferry service to [[New London, Connecticut]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Rattiner |first=Dan |author-link=Dan Rattiner |title=Rule Upheld: Car Ferry Nixed in East Hampton |newspaper=Dan's Papers |date=June 26, 2009 |url=http://www.danshamptons.com/content/danspapers/issue14_2009/08.html |access-date=2009-08-19 }}{{dead link|date=February 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The park has been undeveloped since its transfer in 1986 and is home to a nesting colony of [[piping plover]] which will dictate its future use.
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