Director Of Putnam Valley Historical Society Sees Museum As "Community Place"

Director Of Putnam Valley Historical Society Sees Museum As "Community Place"

A "lemonade social" scheduled for this Sunday

by James Shearwood

The new director of the Putnam Valley Historical Society, Emmy Oliverio Shields, has said she wants the museum at Adams Corners to become "a community place, where people can stop in to socialize."

To that end, the society is planning this Sunday afternoon "a lemonade social." This is a revival of an early American event where families get together to share cookies, lemonade and news. On Sunday at the museum, which is located at the corners of Peekskill Hollow Road, Church Road and Mill Street, there will be soap bubble wands for young children, a colonial puzzles book for those who like mind twisters, and a white elephant table for those who collect.

Normally open Sunday afternoons from 1 to 3, the lemonade social is scheduled for that time. The museum is also open Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 to 2, and because of a recent gift has had increased visitors doing genealogy research during the week.

The previous Director, Ginger DeVoto, the Town Historian, Stephen Andersen, and students from the Putnam Valley school system developed the current exhibit at the museum, "The Revolutionary War."

The students, mostly from Dennis Tave’s 7th grade social studies class, have created panels that give background information about the Revolutionary War.

At the heart of the exhibit are the photographs taken by historian Andersen of sites in Putnam Valley and Philipstown that have some connection with the events of the war. In some cases, it is the remains of a foundation or a site marker. In other cases, the house from that period is still standing with its current use evident in the photo.

In addition to the lemonade social, the society hopes to re-introduce a "Ladies Tea," said Director Shields.

Already scheduled is a holiday bazaar at the museum for December 8 and 9, and the society is sponsoring jazz vocalist and Putnam Valley resident, Michelle LeBlanc, at the Putnam Valley Library on September 22.

The location of the museum, diagonally across from one corner of the Rose Hills Memorial Park and up the road from the older Adams Corners Cemetery, is in the former Adams Corners Schoolhouse.

An exhibit in a back room of the museum details the history of one-room schoolhouses in the area. The current museum building was built in 1846 on land donated by the Adams family. It housed an active school until June 1929, when the town contracted with Shrub Oak to educate its children. This arrangement lasted until the formation of the Putnam Valley Central School District in the mid-1930’s.

Director Shields remembers attending pre-school activities in the building in the late-1960’s. Her older brother Nicholas Oliverio, now president of the society’s board of directors, remembers with some fear, she said, the building being used as an inoculation center in the 1950’s.

The current Putnam Valley Historical Society was chartered by the State of New York in 1968.

Aside from the part-time Director, the museum is staffed entirely by volunteers. The membership of the historical society is "about 400" says Director Shields. She noted that is up considerably from the previous year because of a membership drive that the board and the previous Director initiated.

Weekday visitors to the museum have increased due to the recent gift of a former Mahopac man, who, in researching his own family roots, created an extensive database of Putnam Valley settlers. The database covers 150 years, from approximately 1775 to approximately 1925. This generous philanthropist, known to the museum staff as Mr. Peterson, donated his research, along with a computer, to the museum this spring.

Although Director Shields remembers events at the museum in the 1970’s as "crowded," a recent ruling by the Fire Marshall limits the capacity of the interior of the old schoolhouse to 28 persons at one time. Sunday is expected to have sunny weather and it is possible that the small lawn will be used as well. Parking, for those who drive, is across the street on Peekskill Hollow Road.