From the Archives
HSM COLLECIONS OF HISTORICAL MATERIALS
Pictured here are a few of the thousands of items in the HSM collection of historical materials. The collection includes photographs, diaries, store ledgers, business records, school documents, yearbooks, maps, letters, records of civic organizations, advertising items and the like. The collection includes some artifacts too, such as signs, small tools, housewares, toys and the like.
It is the only history collection dedicated to Middletown and the surrounding area. HSM is committed to preserving these treasures, adding to the collection and documenting our holdings so that researchers may make use of them. These materials will also inform our programming and exhibitions into the future.
To donate items relevant to the history of Middletown and contiguous towns, please contact us:
history@catskill.net; 845-586-4973.
A few images from Headwaters History Days, 2018
HHD 2018 PHOTO GALLERYClick for a larger view of each image...
Rafting down the Delaware — audio history
Bill Horne’s presentation at the HSM Annual Meeting Oct. 23 gave us a chance to hear voices from the past, namely Mike Todd, legendary hunter and woodsman, and Orson Slack, a former raftsman on the Delaware. Horne’s book, The Improbable Community: Camp Woodland and...
Margaretville’s Finest
This photo, donated to HSM by Ed and Janet Vermilyea, shows the Margaretville Fire Department at the 1909 Hudson Fulton Celebration in Kingston.Identifications penciled on the back of the photograph by Ed’s mother included: front, l to r., Nealy Ackerley, Harry...
Echoes of industry
What today is known as the Woolheater house, on Maple Street across from the fire hall was once located on Main Street where Suites on Main (formerly Royal Cleaners) stands. In the 1880s it was Will Mungle’s harness shop, situated above the Binnekill between the shoe...
Halcottsville Relic Hunt yields finds, funds
HALCOTTSVILLE RELIC HUNT PHOTO GALLERYClick for a larger view of each image...
The Merrihew bus line
1920s transportation for those without their own horse or car. Ulster County communities served by the Merrihew Brothers are painted on the side of the bus, evidently before Margaretville was added to the route.Back in the days when bus seats were made of wicker and...
Video: Do you remember 1950s Middletown?
You’ll enjoy this video, created by Fred Margulies, of a program we held in April 2016. We asked the audience to chime in with info about people and places highlighted in a slideshow. Hope you enjoy this communal trip down memory lane. Please contribute your own...
Calling Dr. Green…
Was this the George Green house?A recently discovered photo of a grand old house that once stood in Dunraven has shed a bit of light on 19th-century doctoring. When this photo was taken by the NYC Board of Water Supply in the late 1940s, the house was part of the...
One tired farmer
Percy Haddow didn’t even get his barn boots off before falling asleep in a big upholstered chair with his old dog at his feet in his undated photo, supplied by Carol Haddow Gates. Percy was born in Arena in 1880 to Robert and Mary Jaquish Haddow and continued the...