Putnam Valley Historical Society

Another Town Day has come and gone! Thanks to everybody that stopped by our table – we were happy to meet the two couples who will be moving to Putnam Valley, and pleased with the interest in the “1976” booklet. We’ve decided to reprint it for our holiday boutique this year, which was also a common topic yesterday. If you don’t know what booklet we’re referring to, in 1976 the historical society had printed up a paperback booklet of photos of old Putnam Valley. The inscription on the inside cover reads

The primary purpose of this booklet is to foster enjoyment of our past through a visual record.

An attempt has been made to present an overall picture of Putnam Valley in a more placid era.

Several histories of the town have been published before. We felt that a photographic record would be appropriate for the bicentennial year.

It was difficult to choose from so many photographs made available consequently we plan to have several exhibits at the Schoolhouse Museum in the future.

We acknowledge with thanks the following people who gave or loaned us their precious old pictures:

Bruce Adams, Louise Croft, Clement Gorley, Madeline Holla Knoll, Cliff Lent, Fred Lent, Walter Levino, William Nohai, Bess Perry, Gwen Schauer, Paul Schmittman Sr., Sadie Tompkins Sheldon, John Sinclair, Audrey Toohey and special thanks to the Bicentennial Commission for their financial help and encouragement.

The Putnam Valley Historical Society

We absolutely love that their is a renewed interest in this little booklet. If you have any pictures of old Putnam Valley or Lake Peekskill that you’d like to share with us and possibly include in the reprint, please let us know as soon as possible!

A reminder that this coming SUNDAY at 1:00PM  will be the next installment of Our American History. Michael Adamovich will give his Basically Baseball presentation at the Putnam Valley Library. Our Annual Meeting featuring a special presentation by Lou Del Bianco is coming up after that on October 14th (see a few posts down for more information). Invitations have been sent out to the members, but all are invited. Since it’s also our 50th anniversary, there will be a small display about the museum and society and of course, cake. Who doesn’t like a good celebratory cake? You can reserve your spot in the top right of the website, mail in your payment or stop by the museum on a Saturday.

Last, but certainly not least, our Halloween event. Since Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year, we’ll be holding it the week before on Wednesday the 24th of October. Meet us at the museum at 7:00pm for a presentation by local author Vincent Dacquino.

For more information about Mr. Dacquino and his work, head over to his website for a list of his books, television programs, and more. We are asking for RSVPs (email, phone, Facebook) for this one because we are planning on holding in the museum. If you’re not familiar with the building and plan on making this your first visit, our building has a small visitor capacity and parking is in the dirt lot across the street from the museum.

Putnam Valley Town Day is tomorrow, and we’ll be there celebrating. Not quite sure where on the field, but we’ll be there with our tent and wooden sign. We’re bringing the new t-shirts, the tote bags, information about Basically Baseball and our Annual Meeting, and we’ll announce our Annual Halloween Event there as well!

Because all of that has to get set up, we’ll be closing the museum at 12:30 tomorrow (the 15th) so we can head over to Town Park.

Can you feel it? The subtle change in the air, the late summer wildflowers blooming, the cacophony of nighttime insects, the panic of students realizing they have to cram their summer reading assignments into the next two weeks. It’s almost time to head back to school!

As a kid, this was one of my favorite times of year. New school supplies, new sneakers and a few new outfits…it was a chance to refresh. You know, in case your New Years Resolutions didn’t pan out the way you’d hoped.

You may have noticed that our website looks a little different. It’s time for us to refresh. We upgraded a few things, and will now be able to not only post many more photos in the coming weeks, but video and audio clips. The opening ceremony and dedication of our museum, the history of the library, first hand accounts of the early development of Lake Peekskill, growing up on Lake Oscawana, and much more. The plan is to have it up by around September 5th – the first day of school here in Putnam Valley.

Over on the right side of the site, there will be a short list of upcoming events.

Our new t-shirts (kid and adult sizes!) should be in the museum by next week, and this week we’re expecting tote bags! Who can’t use an extra tote bag in the car, and what better place to get one than your local historical society?

For those tech-savvy, on the go followers of ours with smart phones, we’ll be up and running on Instagram soon. It’ll be the quickest way to show you what we’re up to, both in the museum and live(ish) from our events and goings on outside the museum walls.

Speaking of events outside the museum; Coming up on September 8, 15, and 23 you’ll find us at the following places:

September 15th you can find us at Putnam Valley Town Day at Leonard Wagner Memorial Park (town park), and the following weekend on Sunday, Our American History returns with our very own Michael Adamovich.

Our annual meeting will be held on Sunday October 14th at 1:00pm at the Putnam Valley Volunteer Ambulance Headquarters on Oscawana Lake Road. We’ll be doing something new this year. In addition to honoring members of our community, having a silent auction and conducting our annual meeting, we’ll also be having a rather lively presentation about Luigi Del Bianco. Who is that, you’re wondering? Why, he was the chief carver of Mount Rushmore. Yes, that Mount Rushmore. It’ll be dinner and a show, if you will. Invitations will be going out to our members shortly, and of course non-members are always welcome.

Halloween’s not to far off either, and if you’ve been to any grocery stores lately you’ll have noticed the candy displays are already out. We’re working out our Halloween plans for this year but in the interest of keeping some things on a traditional, seasonal type schedule, we’ll share all that info in September.

We’ll hold off on any holiday boutique announcements until October.

You may remember him from the Bannerman Island tours, or the presentation he gave about Bannerman Island…but Thom Johnson is coming back to Putnam Valley! This time we’ll be learning about the old Cornish Estate, another local (to the county) historical site with an air of mystery and intrigue swirling about. See you on the 14th at 10:00AM!

Updated 05/20/18 – The power was back on as of yesterday afternoon, so our Revolutionary War exhibit opening and 50th birthday party will be this coming Saturday, May 26th at 10:00AM. We’ll see you then!

As many, if not all of you are aware, this past week a rather damaging storm passed through the area. While our schoolhouse thankfully did not take a direct hit, many homes and properties in the surrounding area did. While cleanup efforts continue and power gets restored, we will be postponing our exhibit opening and 50th birthday party scheduled for May 19th and the museum is temporarily closed.

The above pictures are of our side and back yard/garden area. The tree just missed the schoolhouse. A nuisance, but nothing that can’t be cleaned up. Running past the white fence and parallel to the tree is Church Road, a little ways up from where Governor  Cuomo held his press conference the other day.

Unfortunately, our town has become quite familiar with damaging storms in 2018. While the storm on Tuesday didn’t have the devastating impact on the community that the storms in March did, it is still an event that will be recalled years from now when friends and neighbors gather around and “remember when”, sharing pictures and stories. We’re living through some historic times in our town, folks.

We will announce the new opening date for the exhibit in the next few days.

Please note the 1:00PM start time for this one!! Still at the library.

Our next lecture is fast approaching! While last month we enjoyed looking back at a fun time in our past, enjoying the thrill and excitement of an amusement park, this month we look back at a time when our county was severely divided and suffered it’s bloodiest battle during the Civil War. One of the more effective ways of reaching later generations, historical reenactments, movies, and documentaries about the Civil War let us experience a small portion of what was happening in the 1860s.