Bring your memories and photos of the playground that brought our community together in 1990. Exhibit, videos, food, fellowship!
SUNDAY, MAY 4TH @ 2:00 PM
Middletown History Center
778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville
The Village of Margaretville will mark the 150th anniversary of its incorporation this year.
The Village Board will observe the milestone when it meets May 8, the day a public vote in 1875 approved the formation of a system of governance for what had been an unincorporated hamlet.
An illustrated program, to be held Sunday, July 13 at 2 p.m. at the Middletown History Center, will detail the story of Margaretville’s development, focusing on the past century and a half. The talk will cover the impact of railroads, wars, floods and technological progress on businesses, schools, hospitals, civic groups and families.
A block dance will be held on Main Street Saturday, July 26 from 4 to 7 p.m. The street will be partially closed, music will be provided by Sue’s Garage, vintage cars will be on display, food will be available for purchase, and a community portrait will be taken like those taken in 1979 and 2000. Everyone is welcome to be part of this special commemoration.
Mayor John Hubbell, with Trustees Iris Mead, Sarah Hubbell, Dave Budin and Jeff Warren; the Central Catskills Chamber of Commerce, and the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown are spearheading the birthday celebration. Contact Iris Mead or Carol O’Beirne if you have an idea for an activity, or would like to participate in some way.
Businesses are encouraged to hang banners, decorate their store fronts and/or create appropriate window displays.
For updates on the Sesquicentennial, visit villageofmargaretville.com or mtownhistory.org.
Margaret O’Connell with welcome sign.
The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) held its annual meeting of members and friends November 2, when Gary Smith was re-elected to the Board and Iris Mead was voted in as a new trustee.
Their terms will run for three years. Mead fills the seat vacated by the departing Agnes Laub. Others on the HSM board are Pat Moore, Josef Schoell, Doris Warner, Eli Taylor, Michael Fairbairn and Diane Galusha.
The winner of the wooden bench made and donated by craftsman Mike Porter was Mary McGrane of Margaretville.
Trustee Eli Taylor shared his research on “The Lost Battalion” of WWI, and provided brief profiles of five Middletown men who served during the war in unusual units, ranging from balloon surveillance to Northwest timber harvesting. He appeared in uniform and displayed some of the accoutrements of the American Doughboy during the conflict.
Treasurer Pat Moore provided a report on the organization’s finances and noted that HSM is well positioned to follow up its recent building addition with the renovation of the Middletown History Center’s kitchen in 2025.
President Diane Galusha said the June opening of the Center and the Nicholas J. Juried Archives was “the embodiment of its founding members’ faith in this organization to save our history, explain what it means and why it matters, and to have fun learning about how we got to this place in time.”
Among the Society’s accomplishments over the past 20 years were the preservation of more than 80 years of the Catskill Mountain News which is available online for anyone anywhere to read and research; the presentation of more than 130 lectures, programs, history hikes, films, musical programs, exhibits and tours; the transcription of hundreds of headstones in many cemeteries, and the production of 50 issues of the Bridge newsletter as well as a dynamic website ”filled with stories and photos you won’t find anyplace else.”
Added Galusha, “I am proud to say that today we have an operational archives where thousands of items are protected and interpreted for posterity. Every month more people recognize the intrinsic value of historical items and entrust their treasures to our care. It is a big responsibility, but it’s why HSM was established two decades ago.”
She encouraged people to contact HSM at 845-586-2400 to discuss or arrange donations of historic materials to the archives.
For information on HSM, along with historical articles and photos and to join or donate electronically, visit mtownhistory.org.
Re-elected HSM Board members Gary Smith with newly elected Board member Iris Mead.
MARGARETVILLE – The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) will welcome visitors to the Nicholas J. Juried Archives Sunday, Oct. 13 from 1 to 4, when it will also accept donations of materials to add to its collection.
Those who can’t come at that time may make an appointment to do research or donate at 845-586-2400 or historicalsocietyofmiddletown@gmail.com.
Located at the newly expanded Middletown History Center, 778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville, the archives preserves documents, photographs and remnants of the town’s past so that future generations may understand its unique history. From maps to business records, postcards to paintings, family genealogies to farm account books, the archives can be considered “Middletown’s attic,” says HSM President Diane Galusha.
“We are honored to protect these things because they tell the stories of people who have lived, worked and died here,” Galusha commented. “Now that we have adequate climate-controlled storage and work space, we are actively looking for more items to add to the collection. If people have materials related to Middletown and neighboring areas, like Hardenburgh or Halcott, and they don’t know what to do with them, please bring them to the archives!”
Many physical items will be on display during the open house, a National Archives Month event. Visitors may also see digital records and information available on the HSM computer. These include files on individual properties in Arena and Dunraven taken for the Pepacton Reservoir, photographs, diaries, deeds and community history compilations.
The digital collection was recently augmented with the addition of scans of 25 individual issues of area newspapers dating back to 1864. The originals and microfilm reels are stored in the archives, while the scanned versions can now be safely read and searched.
For more information on HSM and its programs, visit mtownhistory.org.
The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM) will stage an informal reading from a dozen diaries, letters, and memoirs in a Second Sunday program at the Middletown History Center September 8 at 1 p.m.
The Center is at 778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville. Admission is by donation.
“The Private Side of History” features four local residents reading excerpts from diaries and letters written between 1863 and 1960, and from memoirs written and recorded more recently.
Readers will be Bill Birns of Fleischmanns, John Exter of New Kingston, Tina Greene of Dry Brook and Annie Pevear of New Kingston.
Revealing their hopes, loves, pranks, aspirations, worries and everyday activities are the following former Middletown residents: Dry Brook hunter Nina Kittle Haynes, man about town James Utter, farmers Willard Hendricks and Will Tuttle, artist Arabella Locke Wyant, New Kingston mother Elizabeth Forrest Scott, Halcottsville sisters Nettie and Sarah Kelly, Margaretville constable George Gilbert, hotel keeper Lore Heppenheimer, four-time Fleischmanns mayor Heinz Pasternak and Charles Snyder, Jr., remembering Arkville of the 1920s.
For information on HSM programs and activities, along with historical articles and photos, visit mtownhistory.org.
Nina and Orson Haynes at Hermit’s Cave, Haynes Hollow