The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown is seeking perennials from area gardens to populate new beds being established around the HSM hall.

Gardeners are invited to drop off plants at the HSM table at the May 11 all-day Margaretville Garden Fest. Both shade and sun loving plants are welcome; irises and day lilies that would thrive along the pond would also be appreciated.

Plants can also be dropped off at the hall, 778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville, on Saturday, May 25 from 9 to noon.

Those who stop at the HSM Garden Fest table will also have an opportunity to pick up a new Visual Scavenger Hunt of Margaretville. Players of all ages can test their observational skills by identifying 16 photographic details of Main Street buildings for a chance to win tickets to a Labor Day weekend concert by the 77th Regimental Balladeers.

The winning entry will be drawn July 4 at the opening of “Middletown in the Civil War,” an exhibit which will run through September 2.

The first program of 2013 will be held Saturday, April 20 at 10 a.m. at the HSM Hall, 778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville when homeowners in Margaretville and Halcottsville share the secrets of their houses and the people who lived there.

Andrew Goldberg will share what he’s uncovered about the Bragg Hollow farmhouse he recently purchased, and Connie and Tom Jeffers will describe the backstory of their beautifully restored Victorian in Margaretville.

Friends of Middletown Cemeteries will gather Monday, April 22 at 6 p.m. at the hall to discuss several possible cemetery restoration projects. All cemetery lovers are welcome.

The Second Annual Postcard and Ephemera Show and Sale is scheduled for June 8 at the hall, 10-3. Several vendors will have vintage materials on display and will make brief presentations.

Plans are speeding along for the Second Annual Living History Cemetery Tour, to be held June 29 in Clovesville, near the Village of Fleischmanns. Ten former residents will be profiled, including a 10-year-old girl, the last of the stage coach drivers, and famed bear hunter Mike Todd! Stay tuned for an announcement of the cast for this ambitious event, which was hugely popular last year when it debuted.

The local face of the Civil War will be presented at a summer-long exhibit which will open July 4 and will be available for viewing every Saturday from July 6 through September 1 from 11 to 2. Photos, artifacts, and individual information sheets on more than 300 Middletown area soldiers who served the Union will be featured. The Delaware County Historical Association will loan portions of its exhibit, “Delaware County in the Civil War,” for this observance of the War’s sesquicentennial.

HSM is still seeking photographs, letters and information about local Civil War veterans and their families for this exhibit. Please email history@catskill.net, or call 845-586-4973 if you have family history to share.

Five outstanding Civil War programs are scheduled throughout the summer to complement the exhibit, from battlefield medicine and horses in combat (July 13), to women’s roles and wardrobe of the 1860s (August 10). Historian Frank Waterman will explain how and why men found themselves in uniform on July 25, and Open Eye Theater and the Delaware Dulcimores will collaborate with HSM to produce a moving reading from local Civil War letters and diaries on August 22.

A community picnic on Sunday of Labor Day weekend will bring summer and the exhibit to an end with the music of the 77th Regimental Balladeers.

HSM will also participate in activities and special events that will mark the 250th anniversary of the arrival of the first white settlers in Middletown. The Village of Fleischmanns is also celebrating a milestone this year – the 100th anniversary of its incorporation as a village.

The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) will host a program Saturday, April 20 by two local homeowners who will recount the history of their homes and will try to give voice to some of the people who lived there.

“House History Hunting,” the first HSM program of 2013, will begin at10 a.m. at the Society’s Hall, 778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville. Admission is $2 for members, $4 for all others.

Andrew Goldberg of Halcottsville and Connie and Tom Jeffers of Margaretville will tell what they’ve uncovered about their houses, sharing the sources they used to peel back the layers of time to reveal who built them, who occupied them, and how the buildings were altered over generations.

Goldberg and his wife, Leslie Derkash, purchased their Gothic revival house in Bragg Hollow one year ago “after searching for a farmhouse that retained a lot of its original details.” The house was built in 1869 by carpenter George W. Hubbell for Orrin Hewitt on what is reputedly the oldest farm in Bragg Hollow, first settled by Seth Parker in 1801. Today the property includes 19 acres and the remnants of a stone barn ramp.

Drama permeates the unassuming wood frame house, and the Goldbergs will reveal the surprising details, describing their search through deeds, local history volumes, genealogy records, newspaper accounts and physical evidence.

Connie and Tom Jeffers will also describe the backstory of their beautifully restored Queen Anne Victorian in Margaretville.

At the end of September in 1892, architect, contractor and builder Henry Coulter and his wife Nina purchased a lot on the northwest end of Walnut Street from Jeremiah Ackerly. They built a house in which to raise their family and it was completed in the mid-1890s.

Since Mr. Coulter was a builder and the home was intended for his family to live in, the construction is amazingly sound “and somewhat over-built,” the Jeffers say. The house features a typical wraparound front porch with turret. A carriage house is in back.

Previous owners (there have been seven) added a massive modern kitchen and a master suite in what was a third floor attic, including the raising the turret and witches cap by 14 feet.

Tom and Connie Jeffers in character

Andrew Goldberg with audience members

10-3. Learn about the men who went to war from our area, and what went on back home during the nation’s most turbulent era. Photos, memorabilia and first-person accounts. Some items on loan from Delaware County Historical Assoc. HSM Hall, 778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville. Free admission, donations welcome.

1:30 p.m. Christian Heidorf LTC (Ret), with his Morgan horse Rebel, explains how horses were acquired, trained, equipped and cared for by the Union Army.

$2 members, $4 non-members. HSM Hall, 778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville