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.
Season preview!
It’s just starting to feel like spring but we’ve been busy firming up plans for a jam-packed season of programs and activities. Details will follow on this website, and in a flyer to be sent with the Spring Bridge to our members. For now, a partial preview: The first...
The Stone family saga
This is the tale of a Clovesville family whose name has faded from the Catskills because the men who carried it left to find their fortunes and meet their destinies more than 130 years ago.Clovesville native John Stone’s burial place in Arizona. The “Col.” title was...
A new pair of boots — a shop local story
In researching the lives of Middletown’s Civil War veterans, I came across an interesting letter to the Catskill Mountain News published April 8, 1960. B. C. Todd wrote in to share memories and stories that old-timers had passed on to him, including this one about...
Hey, check out our new wood splitter!
That’s what these young men may have had in mind when they posed for a photo on the Robertson farm in New Kingston with a monumental stack of perfectly proportioned wood in 1922. If anyone can identify these guys, or explain how the wood splitter worked, or how the...
More News is good news!
Several hundred more pages of the Catskill Mountain News, 1967-73, have been added to the commons! This batch of digitized microfilm will be the last for awhile, the end of a five-year effort to make the News, 1902-1973, readable and searchable on line.The only years...
Here’s to George . . .
The Historical Society has lost a good and faithful friend with the passing of George Hendricks. A trustee on the board since 2008, George was always ready to help. He was a prime mover in getting our historic marker program started with the installation of the first...
210 barns!
New Kingston is the big winner when it comes to the number of barns — 32 — still standing in the Town of Middletown. Mind you, they’re not all big dairy barns, but even the smallest horse, chicken and storage barns had important roles on the farm. So many of them have...
Arena, uncovered
The opening of the Pepacton Reservoir to boaters became more than a recreational opportunity for David Rainbird and Jennifer Kabat of Margaretville, who discovered these artifacts of old Arena on a recent paddle. Low water levels have daylighted sidewalks, bridge...
The Great Outdoors, historically speaking
If you didn’t get a chance to see the exhibit at the HSM hall this summer, highlighting the many ways Middletown area folks have enjoyed the Great Outdoors, you’ll have another opportunity Saturday, Aug. 25 at The Central Catskills Great Outdoor Experience Festival in...