history loading issues with R-2.1.1 under OS 10.4 on a G5 system

I recently built R 2.1.1 successfully using OS 10.4 and it passes  
"make check".
It runs seemingly without issue on my G4's, but the build on my G5  
won't load
my previous .Rhistory files.

I noticed that it creates new history files with the following symbol in
the first line:   _HiStOrY_V2_  . If I add this to the first line of  
older files,
they load and can be browsed.  I'm probably missing something obvious,
but this didn't happen with my G4s. Is there a fix?

Thanks,

-SS