MARGARETVILLE - The Historical Society of the Town of Middletown will hold an open house at the new Middletown History Center, 778 Cemetery Road, Margaretville, Sunday, June 9 from 2 to 4 p.m.
The celebration will begin with a 2 p.m. ribbon cutting on the doorstep of the expanded facility which includes an archives and reading room named for HSM benefactor Nicholas J. Juried.
Middletown Supervisor Glen Faulkner and Margaretville Mayor John Hubbell will make remarks.
The L-shaped addition was designed by Paul Gossen of Vega. General contractors were Cole & Griffin of Arkville. Twenty-four local contractors, tradesmen, craftspeople and suppliers lent their talents to the project.
The archives contain physical and digital photos, documents and other artifacts which will be accessible to researchers and genealogists in the coming months. Open house visitors are invited to see the climate-controlled storage and work room and the adjoining library and reading room where books and binders on local historical topics can be viewed.
The lobby of the addition features several special items. A map of Middletown, created and hand painted by local artists, pays tribute to the town’s 10 hamlets and villages. Beams from the oldest house in Margaretville frame the doorway into the program hall. The roll-top desk used by three generations of Catskill Mountain News publishers is on prominent display. And life-size photographs of two figures from Middletown’s past welcome visitors into the archives. An office and an accessible rest room complete the lobby area. An artfully designed acknowledgment wall lists nearly 200 donors whose gifts, large and small, made the Middletown History Center possible.
Open house guests will enjoy libations in the program hall while viewing wall and cabinet displays showcasing items from the HSM collection.
The next program at the History Center will be July 14 at 1 p.m. when an illustrated talk on the history of the Denver-Vega Valley will be presented as the first in a series of four Second Sunday events.
For more information on HSM and its upcoming programs, visit mtownhistory.org
