Star Island (New Hampshire)
Star Island is one of the Isles of Shoals, located six 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 those which change their theme from year to year.
History
Star Island was first settled, as were all the Isles of Shoals, in the early 1600's 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 and none 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, NH was established on Star Island.
The town and island flourished until the American Revolutionary War when the colonials, believing that having a group of questionable loyalty just off the coast posed a threat, ordered the Shoals evacuated. Many moved to the mainland and with them many of the houses which were located on the islands.
After the war, some moved back to Gosport, but it was never achieved its former population. Meanwhile, 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. It lasted two years before it burned down. Poor rebuilt it, but then sold the entire island to the Thomas Laighton.
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. So by the 1890's the hotels were nearly empty.
Then, in 1896, Thomas Elliott and his wife, Lila, came to Star Island. They immediately saw in the lightly-occupied hotel a place where summer conferences, sponsored by the Unitarian Church, of which he was a member, could be held. 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, 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 1920, the Isles of Shoals Summer Meeting Association which Elliott had organized, bought the hotel and the island, forming the Star Island Corporation.
Star Island Today
Thomas Elliott's original conference is still meeting today, as the Conference on International Affairs, as are a dozen or more other conferences. The Island is like a self-sufficient town, making 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.