The Manhanset House has suffered several fires as it seems:
both before (August 14, 1896 according to an article in The New York Times), and after this picture had been taken (May 10, 1910).

is a few smartphones, laptops and iPads to give relevance and meaning to their lives. The poor souls appear to be stuck with a couple of newspapers and the daunting prospect of actually having to communicate verbally with one another.

The rockers' red glare referred to this.

Manhasset Manhanset House and the somewhat smaller Prospect House catered to mainly middle-class city residents who sought a bucolic summertime retreat that didn't require a great deal of travel. The Long Island Rail Road's Greenport terminal was, and is, adjacent to one of the two Shelter Island ferries, and the ferry ride itself took under ten minutes.

Both resort hotels, which dated to the late 1800's, fell out of favor after World War I as vacation preferences changed. Prospect House burned down in 1942 and Manhanset House followed a few years later. Shelter Island remains a popular vacation spot today, with the year-round population of 2,000+ more than quadrupling in the summer, but it caters to a more upscale crowd. It's also popular with day-trippers, though the main disadvantage is that the woods are loaded with the type of ticks that carry Lyme Disease.

[The resort is Manhanset, with two n's. Manhasset is a town at the other end of Long Island. - Dave]

Error corrected. Both spellings are variants of the name of the same Indian tribe.

Egads! No one really looks like they are having a good time here. I can't imagine what it would be like, dressed in those clothes on a hot day.

What time does the show start? Looks like they are in serious need of a recreation director or social go-between. I'm sure they expected a bit more than just sitting on the porch and looking at each other.