The Vedder Research Library

Greenville Free Academy, pre-1906

William and Pierce Stevens, moving snow as boys did in 1905. This picture was one of several dozen shot by Madison Stevens using the 5 x 7 glass negative format.

A classic winter scene shows South Street, Greenville about 1905 as seen by Madison Stevens. Left is the Randall house; center is the Greenville Arms. Right, telephone pole brings new service to Greenville.

The Garrison house (today owned by John & Laurie Manchisi, one-half mile west on Rt 67, Freehold starts with the building of the laid-stone foundation. Lewis Garrison and unidentified man stand in the cellar. The Goodfellow house (owned by Stanley & Cindy Niekamp) stands in the center. The snow covered hillside is today the site of the Cairo-Durham High School.

The local farmers bring in their milk to the creamery on South Street (now Carter Bridge Road) of Norton Hill in this picture of about 1900. The Bergmans have built their home around this structure

The wagon is stopped in front of Palmer’s woodworking shop and next to the old wagon shop (formerly a tin shop) on Main Street, now Rt 67, freehold. Both buildings no longer stand. Note the kerosene lantern in foreground.

The classes of the Greenville Free Academy of 1928 – 1929 pose in front of today’s Greenville Library on Rt 32. The addition was removed in the late 1930s and moved to Norton Hill and became what is now known as The Silo.

Birdseye view from Methodist Church steeple, looking west on Main Street, Norton Hill. Extensively cleared fields in background are typical of upstate agricultural NY in late 1800s.

Drawing hay the old way on King Hill in the early 1900s. Clair Weeks, right, with help, draws the loose hay with oxen to his barn and farm, now owned by Robert and Cindy Lampman, one-half mile on King Hill Road, Surprise.

Vern Smith’s sawmill on the left and Galatian’s gristmill on the right testify to the power of local economy on Red Mill Road in West Greenville. Power for the mills was created by the mill pond damned in the 1800s. Remnants of the dam are still visible. Building on right is still today recognized as Red Mill; the sawmill no longer stands.

Taken at the intersection of today’s Rts 32 and 81, another Madison Stevens photo shows the Greenville House, also known as the Coonley Hotel, on the southwest corner now occupied by Pioneer Insurance Co. The building beyond the hotel is Hartt’s Store, also torn down for the 1929 construction of the Pioneer. The memorial to Tommy Knowles, lower right, still stands, its use having changed from horse watering trough to today’s flower planter.

The Cabin, once a family oriented establishment, stood on the site opposite St. John’s Catholic Church on Rt 81, one-quarter mile west of Greenville. The building burned in October, 1984.

When the snowplows didn’t make it, the men of Freehold did. Shoveling through a draft in front of Elmer Story’s house, one quarter mile west on Main St., Rt 67, in the winter of 1917-1918 are, left or right: Oliver Hunt, Alex Garrison, Floyd Palmer, Merv Bennett, Calvin Lacy, ? (the boy peering by the shovel handle), Elmer Story, ?, Harmon Becker.

Birdseye view of Greenville Four Corners from Stevens’s Hill

The Greenville Academy, left, and the Presbyterian Church stand in stark solitude on this winter day, circa 1875. The Academy was razed in 1905 to make way for the present Library building. Young trees and a decrepit picket fence front what is now a National Historic Register area.

The Vanderbilt Theater, the cultural Center for Greenville, occupied the current Cumberland Farms site on Rt 81, Greenville. The 1825 Episcopal Church of East Greenville was moved and became the theater during the later 1800s. The theater, last used as a summer theater and movie house, was razed in 1982.

The Blizzard of 1888 (March 11-13) hit Main St, Greenville with over 40 inches of snow. One of the earliest pictures of Greenville on file, this print shows the community facing a massive clean-up.

The Surprise store and post office, circa 1910, stands empty today one-half mile inside the eastern edge of the town on Route 81. The building was bought from Omar Losee by Robert H Blenis who ran the store from 1912-1954, followed by his son Gordon from 1954-1985. The post office closed in 1988

The Gayhead store, as many small stores did, served as an anchor for the southeast corner of the town. Store owners included Jay and Nellie Ungvarsky (1930s-early 1970s), preceded by Ray Waldron (1920s,) Arthur Story (early 20th century) and Mose Palmer (late 1800s). The building still stands as a private home

The 1932-1933 faculty of the new Greenville Central School include: FRONT: Leta Arnold, Marjorie DeHeus, Scott Ellis, Ruth Rundell Grenci, Virginia Stevens; MIDDLE: Ethel Ray, Emily Duntz, Goldie White, Don Mabee, Elizabeth Meyer, Leonard Palmer, Mildred Stone Vaughn, Muriel Wooster, Leona Thompson Lewis; Elizabeth Bentley, Eva Button Bott, Mary Mabie, Gladys Beylegaard, Ruth Slater Palmer, Dorothy Mitler Price.

Isaac VerPlanck and son John I pose in front of the wagon shop about 1907 opposite today’s Kilcar on Rt. 81, Norton Hill. John I managed the general store in this building from 1922-1963; he then managed the addition, a one-story appliance and furniture store from 1963-1982. The block building, much enlarged, is run as a machine shop by Siemag; the old wagon shop/store was torn down about 1970.

Alva E Sutton’s blacksmith shop mirrors the modern pace of 1914, as the auto livery sign attests. The men of freehold, l–r, are: Elmer Simmons, Leon Wood, Al Sutton, Lon Hale, Bert Weaver, Herb Antus, Vic Hoose, Loran Antus. The building, greatly modified, still stands as a storage building for B&G Plumbing, opposite the Mobil Station on Route 32 in Freehold.

Gerald Weeks, Sarah Weaver, teacher Miss Jessie Boyd, Florence Noirot and Raymond Losee pose in front of the King Hill schoolhouse on King Hill Road about 1915. The building in the background is the King Hill Methodist Church, the town’s earliest Methodist church, established in 1812. Only the schoolhouse remains today, part of a private home, today owned by Irma Piantinida, opposite the King Cemetery.

Rod Talmadge poses with his taxidermy in the Talmadge house, 200 yards north of the Ingalside farm barns on Ingalside Road. The taxidermy collection passed to the buyers at a 1960 auction upon Rod’s wife’s (Mary Hickok Talmadge) death; the house was razed soon thereafter.

Dr. Charles P. McCabe (1856-1930) makes another house call in his model T Ford circa 1920. Dr. McCabe practiced in Greenville from the 1890s until the 1920s as a few residents can still testify from personal experience.

Before refrigeration was common, the cutting of ice from local ponds and mill dams allowed for the storage of perishable foods. Here, the Red Mill mill pond just above the present day Red Mill on Red Mill Rd, West Greenville, provides ice for this necessary activity about 1910.

View CR 67, one half mile east of Freehold, looking westward toward center of town.

A bird’s-eye view from the Presbyterian Church shows West Street (Rt. 81), Greenville of the early 20th century. Orchards and elms intersperse with structures that today belong (left to right) to: Curt Cunningham, Lee Cunningham, Barbara Maxwell, June Clark and, in the distance, Evans (Crow) Griffin.

Freshly blanketed by a nor’easter squall, this Freehold house, located 100 yards west of the Freehold bridge, was owned by Elmira Becker in the early 1900’s, bequeathed to the Freehold Church as a parsonage, and currently is being renovated. The stone wheel, bottom, was a remnant of the grist mill that stood on Mill Road (Hempstead Lane).

The massing of logs on both sides of Red Mill attests to the activity of Vern Smith’s sawmill which stood only yards north of the Red Mill. The house beyond the logs is the Evans Griffin house which burned in the 1980’s.

A mainstay in Norton Hill, Peter R. Stevens’ general store, earlier run by L.H. Powell in the 1930’s, is today used by Liberti’s Pizza. The feed store entrance is on the right. The Methodist Church, background, still remains but the dirt road and wooden bridge have made room for “progress”.

As the blacksmith business waned, Harry Yeomans took on the growing automotive business. Harry Yeomans and Wilbur Cornell stand in front of a fledgling Yeoman’s Garage, once the site of Meddaugh’s blacksmith shop. The concrete block building built in 1933-34 that replaced this early garage still houses the car sales and repair business in the Yeomans name on Main Street in Norton Hill.

Arching elms frame Henry T. Botsford’s house (left), the Greenville Academy (background) and the Maxwell house (right). Built in 1889, the Botsford house, 400 yards west of Greenville’s four corners, today has been restored by June Clark.

Ellie King, Clair and Clinton Weeks, Bertha Weeks, Obadiah King, Fanny Nelson and Fanny’s mother, pose, about 1900, in front of King Hill Cottage on King Hill Road, one quarter mile from today’s Rt.81. The farm still remains in the Gerald Weeks’ family.

The construction of the central school in 1931 necessitated the moving of the Ford Rundell house (today owned by son David) across the street to its present location on North Street (Rt. 32). Moving was suspended one moving day with the house partially on Rt. 32. To allow the house to sit where it does today, Ford shot off an offending locust branch. The house sits one-quarter turn clockwise from its original orientation.

This picture of the classes of the Greenville Academy of about 1911 shows; (front) Alice Jenkins, Kate Spees, Chris Vogel, Irene Chesbro, Burdette Griffin, Walt Stevens, Gerard Irving, Mabel Griffin; (middle) Bill Gedney, Hannah Winnie, Madeline Chesbro, Elizabeth Griffin, Lilly Tompkins, Estelle Griffin, Mary Vanderbilt; (top) Ada Winnie, George Irving, Nellie Tompkins, Millicent Evans, Gladys Evans, Miss Lottie Story.

With many more fields open in the 1940’s, these Freehold men display the results of their rabbit hunt. Left to right are Leon Wood, Lewis Garrison, Howard Wood, Alvah Sutton, Gervase Hall, Elmer Simmons, John Siegel, Ray Hunt.

Haight’s boarding house in the 1930’s typified the trend of many big farm houses, earning extra cash by taking in guests. Founded by the Rundle and Butler families, this general area on Rt. 26 between Newry Road and Cedar Lane was, and is, known as East Greenville or, more picturesquely, as Brandy Hill, because of the apple distillery. Behind the house stood Haight’s dance hall, a mecca of entertainment from Greenville until the 1940’s.

In 1901, Rhue and Burdette Griffin, Bloomer and Francis Griffin, and Caroline Griffin pose in front of their house called Marble Pillar. Oral history suggests a whitish stone gave its name to this area. This old hotel, which stood on the eastern corner of Rt. 81 and Ingalside Road, was deserted by the 1920’s and was taken down by the 1930’s

This view of the Basic Creek from the Freehold Bridge shows the clinging snow of a January, 1993 storm. The Basic Creek, along with the Catskill Creek, Jan de Bakker, and Cobb Creek are the “major” waterways in the Town of Greenville.

Sap buckets hang from these sugar maples in front of Panzarino’s Homestead Bed & Breakfast near the corner of Rt. 81 and Red Mill Road. Ingalside Road climbs the hill past the STOP sign.

The Blizzard of 1993 (Mar 13-14) once again produced the look of the legendary winters of our memories. The windswept Carelas’ Hill (Fish Hill, Budd’s Hill), one-half mile south of Greenville on Rt. 32, fosters the growth of this fifteen foot drift.

The aerial of Norton Hill shows Rt. 81 slicing the picture in half. On the lower right is the Methodist Church; upper right, GNH Lumber Yard anchors the western end of town as it has done since 1938. Side roads, from bottom to top are: Carter Bridge Road, North Road, New Ridge Road.

Memorial Day Parade, 1992 has Rick Magee cruising in front of the Library in his 1931 Ford sedan. Raising money for the proposed Town Park is the cause advertised; the 156 acre Vanderbilt Park became reality through the efforts of Park Committee fundraising and from an Iroquois Gas grant

In the tradition of blacksmith, A.C. Yeomans (1872), Harry “Junior” Yeomans poses beside his tools of the trade in his service and sales building, Yeomans Garage, on Main Street, Norton Hill. Junior has worked in his Chevrolet dealership of 60 years since 1935; his father built the block building in the 1930s.

Nearly 25 abandoned cemeteries dot the Town of Greenville. The Edgett Cemetery, located near the corner of Sunny Hill Road and Fox Hill Road, not only enjoys the view of the Catskill Mountains but is also fenced and maintained by the Nicholsens of Sunny Hill Resort.

Local Flavor is symbolized by “Matt’s” hot dog stand, next to the driveway to the firehouse. First started by Matt Chesbro (left) in 1969, the portable stand is today operated by son-in-law Tom Briggs (right) who took over in 1986.

Imparters of “local lore and wisdom”, the Sunday morning 8:40 a.m. shift graces the Freehold Country Store porch. Every 10-30 minutes will find a new cast on such mornings. Left to right are Mike Maxwell, Horst Krueger, Don Teator, “Skip” Noirot, Doug Palmer, John Hoch, Wally Koelmel, and Andy Macko. Store owner Jim Valentine is visible through the left window.

A vanishing architectural form, this large red barn of the Kieszkiel farm near the corner of Rt. 67 and Mountain View Road still reminds modern Greenville of a way of life not too distantly past.

One of the largest oaks in the Town of Greenville, this white oak of twenty feet circumference dominates this view of the Freehold Congregational Church. The earlier Freehold Cemetery is located 1/4 mile south of Freehold.

The new mixes with the old! Christmas trees and a shawl of lights on the gazebo roof reflect new traditions, while the Academy Building and Presbyterian Church represent the older history. The gazebo was built in the late 1980s as a fundraiser for the GCS band’s trip to Paris; the Christmas tree celebration started in 1990.

New GCS access road, back of Presbyterian Church; Freehold artist Stanley Maltzman; Early summer carnival at Bryant’s Square; Snow laden evergreen, Brown Farm, Norton Hill

Freehold Airport, owned by Clem and Rita; John’s Pizzeria at Balsam Shade Flea Market, Nugent family; Snow-dusted Episcopal; Worn wagon, Sunset Road, Norton Hill

Yard sale on Red Mill Road, Freehold; Yard sale at Greenville Arms, Greenville; Snow on the farm, East Red Mill Road; Remains of Red Mill dam

George Story, Ken Thompson of Story’s Nursery, Freehold; Raked hay on Brown Farm, Old Plank Road, Norton Hill; Schoharie League rivals - Greenville & Cairo-Durham; Scoutmaster Dave Battini & Troop 42 on clean-up day

The aerial of Freehold shows Rt. 67 splitting the picture vertically, with Rt. 32 the upper horizontal, and Red Mill Road and Hempstead Lane the lower horizontal. The Freehold Country Store anchors the four corners. Taken after TipTop’s fire, this photo shows the temporary tent set up just before the new structure was built. (Debra Teator, Freehold Airport)

This aerial of Greenville looks northwestward. Rt. 81 from lower left and runs to upper left; Rt. 32 runs almost horizontally, and Rt. 26 comes in from lower right. A corner of the cemetery is visible right center.

Fifty years ago ended a world conflict that many consider the shaping of the 20th century. Even a small town like Greenville was affected in major ways, both by sending its young men and women to serve and by adjusting and waiting at home. A symbol of that time is the Honor Roll that was erected by the pond corner closest to the four corners. Although exact dates are not remembered, consensus says the board was erected during late war years, taken down in the late 1940’s, and its disposal is uncertain.

Long an anchor of Freehold, this structure stands on the southeast corner of Freehold’s four corners. Known as one of the inns that accommodated 19th century travelers on the Schoharie Turnpike (today’s Rt. 67), this building has served as restaurant, bar, inn, and boardinghouse over the years. Many will remember Jennie Parks, who kept a boardinghouse/inn from the 1930’s until her death in the late 1960’s.

State mandates (yes, even back in the 1930’s!) merged a number of one-room schoolhouses into the newly formed Greenville Rural School District. Dated February 13, 1932, this photo shows mid-construction of the new school, occupying a site that was the site of the Ford Rundell house (see August 1993 calendar). The school district would add on to this structure in the 1950’s and the build a high school in the late 1960’s.

A showing of machinery and farm implements takes place at Greenville’s four corners. Pierce Stevens, proprietor of the farm implement store, housed his machinery in the then new block building (now part of the firehouse) to the rear of the Steven’s store, today’s NAPA building. The large house on the corner occupied the site of today’s Mobil Station and was torn down about 1946. Further up North Street, Wessel’s Garage, a former blacksmith shop, was nearing the twilight of its existence. The angle of this photograph suggest a shot from the top floor of the Pioneer, which had been erected in 1929.

Chief observer Fred Kaiser stands in front of the observation post located on Murder Bridge Hill (just above and opposite the West Road - Rt. 81 intersection) in mid-April, 1943. Along the Atlantic Coast, hundreds of ordinary citizens were trained as spotters to identify shapes of potential invading enemy warplanes, should such a situation arise. Tens of Town of Greenville residents assisted at the post and the others located at Norton Hill and King Hill.

Captain Leslie I. Gumport leads the Greenville Memorial Day Parade down Main Street about 1949. The building many knew as Baker’s or Hynes’, seen as Lavelle’s Restaurant & Tap Room here, was torn down in 1987 to make room for the True Value hardware store. Ed McAneny (dark suit), as American Legion Post 291 Commander, follows Gumport. Gumport was instrumental in reinstituting the Memorial Day parade in 1945 and led the parades until his death in 1966.

The Class of 1931, posing for their graduation picture, is the first pictured class of the Scott M. Ellis Elementary School. This practice ended with the Class of 1968, the last class to graduate from this building. Pictured are, bottom: Hilda Howard, Elizabeth Strong, Clarice Palmer, Evelyn Tompkins, Annella Dinnel, Marilla Brockett; middle: William Vaughn, Dorothy Vincent, Beulah Rugg, Natalie Hull, Helen Potter, Mildred Cutler, Howard Boyd; top: Joseph Slater, Elmer Carlson, Arnold Nicholsen, Leland Cunningham, John Jennings, Roland Young.

Having the old way is seen here as David Evans (on ground) and his grandfather-in-law-to-be Bert Griffin drive the ox-drawn wagonload of loose hay to the barn about 1895. This property lies on the east side of today’s Ingalside Road, about one-third mile from Route 81. The Evans farm was later occupied by Maggie Cathcart, and today by Rev. Charles Rice.

Anchoring west Main Street, Greenville, Cunningham’s Funeral Home of the mid-1930’s stand slightly changed from today. Built in 1898 by A.J. Cunningham, this structure has served as furniture store, feed and machinery store, and funeral home, and has kept the Cunningham name with the next two generations - Lee and Curt. Before the Cunningham’s, the funeral business was handled by Elmer Hunt.

Celebrating its 75th anniversary in 1994, Sunny Hill Resort has emerged as one of Greenville’s most successful resorts. This 1928 photo shows Sunny Hill’s beginnings - the main house on the right (now the new Austland unit) and the carriage house and dining hall on the left (today’s Viking unit). With the hard work of Peter and Gurine Nicholsen, the boardinghouse continually adjusted and grew to meet new demands. Son Arnold and his wife Mae Zulch oversaw Sunny Hill’s growth from the 1940’s. Since Arnold’s death in 1985, the progress of Sunny Hill is still overseen by Mae and by the third generation - Gary, Wayne, and Gail.

Fifty years ago, the ridge just west of the Lake Mills Road and Schoharie Turnpike intersection (CR41 and CR67) presented a view of what was just starting as Pine Springs, started by the Cravatas - Billy & Helen, Roger & Irene - and later sold to the Garzilli family in 1957. In the distance, the open field of Mountain View Road still have not seen the development of new houses of the 1980’s. The house visible in the distance probably is the Maplehurst Farm, another area boardinghouse, operated by Betke from the 1940’s to 1962, and then by Powazi into the 1970’s. The barn on the right was part of the John Alden farm, no structures of which exist today.

Back when Greenville Center was a busier hamlet, the Shaw store, once the site of a blacksmith shop, operated on the southwest corner of the four corners. James Shaw Sr. & Jr. ran the store in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Anton Mickelsen bought the property in the 1930’s, and his son Grant operated a store here in the late 1940’s until a fire severely damaged this structure in the 1950’s. Grant Mickelsen renovated the structure and maintains it as a private residence today. The child on the porch remains unidentified.

Located on the corner of Rt. 81 and Carter Bridge Road in Norton Hill, this building has seen many uses. Noted on the 1867 map, this structure has served as a post office, meat market, store, and skimming station, as well as private home. In the 1950’s, Harold and Edith Edmunds opened a popular restaurant, the Chatterbox, which in turn was operated by Howard and Katherine Ingram from 1961-1966

List of names from calendar cover.

Sketch by Stanley Maltzman of Shaw Farm on Big Woods Rd, Freehold

Store keeper Ezra Winn stands in front of the A&P on Main Street, Greenville, about 1926. He would succeed Everett Palmer in operating the South Westerlo store in 1929, and had earlier in the decade operated a store in Greenville. This row of buildings has been a fixture in Greenville for well over a century. The building to the left serves modern Greenville as At The Crossroads ice cream parlor, and before as Quackenbush’s Pharmacy and Hallenbeck’s Drugstore.

As the population boom continued through mid-century, the Town of Greenville attempted to maintain their own police force, first with a system of constable and then with the Town of Greenville police force. Formed in the late 1960’s, it was eliminated about 1982. Three member of this police force were Andy Macko, Lou Becker and Howard Brinkerhoff.

Stuck in the springtime mud on the section of the Greenville Center road (today’s CR41) between the four corners and Fox Hill Road, this car shows one of the hazards of rural driving in the 1930’s. The Erwin plan of the 1950’s dramatically improved Greenville’s roads, and gradually all town roads were mostly free of dust, mud, implacable snow banks, and severe corners and turns. The last dirt road in Greenville (Tranquility Road) was paved in 1990.

The northwest corner of Freehold’s four corners has been anchored by the Freehold Store for over a hundred years. Claimed by Beers’ 1884 History as “the largest store in the county, outside of the river towns, with one exception,” the store has been operated by: John and Curtis R. Lacy, followed by Curtis’ son Roscoe Lacy (1863-1913); C.P. Wood and sons, Leon Howard, along with partner Leon Hall (1914-1946); Robert & Marjorie Harr (1947-1970); Paul & Anita Nugent (1971-1987); and Jim & Jeannette Valentine (1987-present).

Greenville’s boarding houses typically stared when a farmer took in a few boarders for extra cash, and then gradually built on until the boarding house became main business. Three generation of the Griffin family have operated Balsam Shade: Burdett & Evangeline Griffin from 1935 until 1967; Ed and Mary Griffin from 1967-1983; and Len and Jyl (Griffin) DeGiovine from 1984-present.

The Greenville High Baseball Team (about 1929) poses in front of the Academy (today’s Library). Left to right - Bottom: Arnold Nicholsen, Jerry Ingalls, Lee Cunningham, Lawrence Felter, Elmer Carlson. Top: Joe Slater, Harold Worth, John Zivelli, Chuck Burgess, Scott Ellis - coach, Don Blenis, Ken Lawyer, Win Davis, Bill Vaughn.

Students of the Greenville Free Academy pose for a classic school picture. Formed in 1816, the Greenville Academy established Greenville as an area educational center. Having undergone changes of name and fortune, the building shown was razed in 1905 to make way for the current building, which continued to serve as a school building until Greenville’s centralization of schools. Today, this building serves as the Greenville Memorial Library, part of the Greenville Park and National Historic Register area.

The family of John and Antoinette Gardner poses just before the turn of the century in front of their house in Norton Hill, on the east corner of today’s Route 81 and North Road. The house passed to daughter Vera Ostrander; in 1936, Erwin and Wilhelmina Yeomans bought the house.

About fifteen schoolhouses dotted the Greenville map throughout the 1800’s and early 1900’s. With the centralization movement of the 1920’s and 1930’s, many of these structures were converted to other uses. This one in Surprise, on the corner of Willowbrook Drive and Willowbrook Road, is the residence of former Surprise postmaster Gordon and Dorothy Blenis, who have owned it since 1938.

The West Greenville area, active in part because of the Red Mill (shown in the background) and Vern Smith’s saw mill, has been the topic of several calendars. The man shown here is tentatively identified as Joseph Goff.

The early 20th century teamsters found “progress” meant delivering goods to nearby markets with their horses in competition with the new automobile/trucking technology. Stanley Ingalls (1892-1969), whose family was among Greenville’s earliest teamsters, bought this Federal in the late teens.

The Old Timers Christmas Party is a tradition since 1951, an idea started by Arnold Nicholsen. This picture of a late-1950’s party is taken at the school gym/auditorium, and the behind-the-scenes work demonstrates the high level of Greenville volunteerism even today.

View of Freehold Congregational Church, looking toward hamlet center.

Long a fixture on Main Street, O.G. Hallenbeck’s drugstore served Greenville in the 1920s and 1930s. Previous owners included McCabe and Avery; after Hallenbeck came Ales and Quackenbush. When the pharmacy moved to Bryant’s Country Square, the building was used as a church, among other uses. Most recently, At The Crossroads, an ice cream and gift shop, has occupied this structure.

In 1921, Cornelius (“Neil”) and Bertha Baumann opened Baumann’s Brookside, one of the handful of resorts that have endured the boarding house peak of the mid-1900s. Bought from Eleazer Abrams, the main house (shown above) was enlarged in 1930, with a pool and the other buildings to follow during the ensuing decades. Son Russell and wife Rose Denowski joined the business in 1945; when Rose died, Russell’s second wife Vivian Calapa Callahan joined the business in 1951. Russell and Rose’s daughter Carol and her husband Richard Schreiber entered the business in 1965, who have since been joined by their daughter Rosemary Schreiber and husband Kevin Lewis in 1994, thus making four generations of family inn-keeping tradition. Located on the corner of Red Mill Road and Johnnycake Lane, Baumann’s Brookside can entertain 150 guests

The last remnant of a proud history of aviation in the Town of Greenville, the Freehold Airport was created from cow pastures by Virgil Phinney in1960 along the Catskill Creek, one mile west of Freehold’s four corners. Clem and Rita Hoovler (shown in inset) have operated the airport since 1961 and have given scenic rides and taught many an aspiring pilot ever since. Further details of early aviation history in the town are written in the Winter 1984 Green County Historical Journal.

The advent of the paved road made automobile travel much easier, but the making of such a road was backbreaking work. These men are pounding creek rock endwise into the dirt, thus making for a solid base in the later 1920s. The road from Cairo-Freehold-Greenville, pictured here at Freehold’s four corners, would eventually eclipse the east-west road, today’s County Route 67, as Freehold’s main road. The building on the right was Park’s Inn, today the Freehold Country Inn. The house to the left was the Lacy house and is still owned by Janet Lacy Halstead.

Local flavor and patriotism marked Pete Rinaldi’s contribution to Greenville’s Memorial Day parades with his pick-up truck float, “Let Us Never Forget”. Pete, a WWII Navy radar man, would construct his float each year in his backyard, attaching 122 crosses and eight Stars-of-David to the wooden platform. Starting in 1985, Pete drove this float in Greenville’s parades until his death in late 1995. Appearing in the 1996 parade, Pete Rinaldi’s float was donated to American Legion Post 291.

A custom that was celebrated at the Greenville Free Academy in the late 1920s and early 1930s, May Day (the one shown above took place May 20, 1932) meant streamers around the May Pole, a few social activities, and the crowning of the King and Queen, A year earlier, King and Queen were Lee Cunningham and Clarice Palmer.

King Hill’s Clair Weeks throws hay up to a farm hand as haying was done in the nineteen-teens. Sons Clinton and Gerald are on the right. Clair’s wife was Bertha King, a great-great-granddaughter of Obadiah King and Abigail Rundle, two of the earliest settlers in the area (1791).

In 1928, when a cow could walk Main Street, Greenville, Thurston Vaughn (inset), Charles Abrams, and Robert Vaughn lead the Vaughn cow to pasture. The house in the background is today known as Evie Simpsons’s house. At the time of this picture, the Vaughns lived in the first house north of the creek that runs by the elementary school upper parking lot, east side of the road (today, Gordon Simpson’s house).

Armed with a vision of and a need for an expanded library, Greenville Memorial Library Board Chair Leona Flack (shown above) initiated a 1991 building drive that finally culminated in this 1996 addition. The original building was built in 1906, replacing the former Greenville Academy building (1816-1905). A previous addition had been built on the same side in the early 1920s, and moved in the 1930s to Norton Hill.

Settling just north of what would become the Town of Greenville line on North Road, Jacob Ingalls arrived in this area in 1793. Many of his descendants stayed in the area and helped shape the Greenville area history. A great-grandson of Jacob, Truman Ingalls (1864-1941), and his wife Carrie Spalding Ingalls pose with their nine children in 1907; (clockwise, starting with the tallest) Warren (m. Margaret Tremmel), Carrie (m. Edward Calvin Ingalls), Ransom (m. Ethel Abrams), Stanley (m. Eleanor Goff), Elgirtha (m. Scott Ellis), Leona (m. D.H. Rundell), Dorothy (m. William Gray), Ruth (m. Merritt Elliot) and Clarence (m. Alliene Beers, Irene Worth). The Ingalls were among the earliest teamsters and lumberers in the area, as well as anchoring the nearby communities in which they settled.

Long a fixture on Greenville’s southeast corner, this building often served as a store - to Alexander Bentley in the mid-late 1800s and as an IGA store in the mid-twentieth century. It even served as a classroom in the late 1920s when space was tight at the Academy. Notoriety came when the butcher’s son murdered the minister’s daughter in 1935 in a sensational case that headlined regional newspapers. The building was razed in the early 1960s as part of the project that widened Route 81 from Greenville to Coxsackie. The small shop on the right still stands, today as Lafferty’s Realty. The building barely visible to the left and behind, showing much more prominently in the inset, is the Baumann apartments.

Long before the gender equity for high school sports of the late 1970s, the Greenville girls had their own basketball team in the late 1920s and early 1930s, usually playing their game just before the boys’ game. Their home court was the Norton Hill church hall, and would travel to Cairo, Hunter, Windham, Athens, Catskill, and Coxsackie. This team of about 1930 included (l-r): Clarice Palmer, Marion Lockwood, Helen Potter, Annella Dinnel, Natalie Hull, Mary Potter, Dorothy Joy, Edna Ingalls, Thelma “Tut” Boomhower, and Gladys Beecher.

Greenville Hotel, from a post card.

Snow removal was no easier in 1914 than it is today, even if much of the snow then was eventually packed on the roadway. This scene of east Main Street, the south side, starts on the left with Neil W. Avery’s pharmacy and continues to today’s Baumann apartment building, with remarkably little change in architecture.

One of the longest continuous personal businesses in Greenville, located 100 yards north of Greenville’s four corners, is the barbershop of Joe Flach (left) and son Philip (Flip). They have operated their barbershop, built in 1963, from the site formerly of Wessel’s Garage, and before that a blacksmith and wheel shop. Celebrating his 50th year in business, Joe started cutting hair in February, 1948 in a shop attached to the Tydol-Veedol service station (currently the post office site on Route 81 west) which was owned by his father-in-law Phil Schwebler. Joe had apprenticed under Bill Neidlinger who ran a barbershop in what is now Attorney Dale Doerner’s office on Route 81 east. Flip, at age 16, apprenticed under his father and was licensed in 1968. Joe’s father Karl operated a farm on the Alcove Road, about one-half mile from the junction with Hillcrest Road.

William Quackenbush Jr and William Quackenbush III work behind the counter of the Greenville Pharmacy in 1973. Bill (father) and wife Dot came to Greenville from Plattsburgh, NY in 1949, buying the pharmacy from Gordon Bartholomew who had bought it in 1946 from the previous owner, Frank Ales. The Pharmacy, located on the south side of Main Street, most recently is the site for At the Crossroads. Bill and Dot brought to Greenville their first five children - Bill, Ed, Mike, Mary and Dan - and would then have five more while in Greenville - Judy, Joe, Mark, Bernadette, and Matt. Oldest son Bill graduated in 1966 from Albany College of Pharmacy (as did Mark in 1979) and returned to Greenville to work with his father in the spring of 1967. In 1977, the Pharmacy moved to Bryant’s Country Square (site of inset) and was sold to sons Bill and Mark in 1978, the year before their father died. Since then, the Greenville Pharmacy began Northeast Home Care (1983), bought the Windham Pharmacy (1985), became associated with ValueRite (about 1985), and opened the Greene Medial Arts Pharmacy in Catskill (1994). As a result of another death in the family due to cancer, the Quackenbushes stopped selling tobacco products in 1989, one of the first stores in eastern New York to do so. In the inset are Dot and sons Mark (left) and Bill.

Celebrating their centennial this year, the Cunningham family has been a mainstay of Greenville’s West Road, today’s Route 81, a hundred yards from the four corners. A.J. Cunningham bought the business from Elmer Hunt when it was mostly a feed store and furniture business. As the feed and furniture gradually waned, and as the custom of having funerals at home declined, the Cunningham business focused on the funeral part. AJ’s nephew Leland learned the trade as a teenager and obtained his license in the mid-1930s. Noted for his years of service, Lee was County Coroner for twenty years, and is/was a member of the Methodist Church, Masonic Lodge, Knights of Pythias, Greenville Volunteer Fire Company, as well as having volunteered in other community activities. Lee’s son Curt, a current County Coroner, graduated from GCS, from Alfred State Technical in 1961 and the Simmons School of Embalming in 1963, and eventually took over the business in 1985. Curt is a past Town Councilman and Supervisor. Todd Valenti (who has been employed since 1995) and Curt continue to maintain the service and dignity that has long been established by A.J. Cunningham and Leland A. Cunningham

The classes of 1922-1923 pose beside the Greenville Free Academy. Top row: Anna Hannay, Edna George, Jesse Elliott, Howard Story, Clifford Hoose, Laura Barker, Violet Tryon, North Cameron, Goldie Wright, Philip Lockwood, principal Paul Patchin; fourth row: teacher Miss Phipps, Bernice O’Hara, Eva Smith, Gladys Cunningham, Hele Wickes, Charlotte Birmann, Lillian Tryon, May Shaw, Elizabeth Williamson, Dorothy Lord, Eva Evans, Mildred Winegard, Florence Evans, Sadie Kudlack, Marion Irving, Marian Hale, Hawley Conklin, teacher Miss Newman; third row: Bernice Irish, Helen Story, Dora Evans, CoraMae Willsey, Florence Newman, Ruth Slater, Gladys Beylegaard, Ralph Stevens, George Jenkins: second row: Dorothy Cameron, Alice Chesbro, Irene Worth, Leona Ingalls, Mary Francis, Irene Dougherty, Helen Rugg, Margaret Boomhower, Ruth Rundell, Margaret Chesbro, Marie Vogel, Evelyn Hoose, Myra Griffin; bottom row: Edward Swartout, Leonard Palmer, Con Baumann, Kenneth Hallock, Melvin Peck, Arthur Petersen, Erwin Yeomans, Ernest Bell, Horace Lockwood.

In 1924, Nicholas and Lydia Schirmer bought a farm house located on the northeast corner of today’s Newry Road and County Route 26 and rented out rooms from the overflow of Twelve Maples, the boarding house across the street. The house had been a tavern about 1840 when East Greenville was a bustling stop along the Coxsackie Turnpike. Naming their property Willow Rest Farms, the Schirmers started taking guests on their own within a few years. Over the next twenty years, an annex bungalow were added to help accommodate 65 guests, all this while six young Schirmers were growing up. Son Reinhold (Reiny) Schmermer (spelling change), who had married Jo Gawel in 1942, bought the business in 1948 and started his first year in 1949, renaming the business - Pine Lake Manor. More rooms and motel units were built, a barn made into a rec hall, and the upgrades that changed boarding houses into today’s resorts were made. Meanwhile, Reiny and Jo’s daughter Joanne married Tom Baumann in 1963 and they entered the business in 1972. The fourth generation - Amy, Kevin, and Jacquie - grew up and worked in the family business. Today, Pine Lake Manor accommodates 150-165 guests. (Twelve Maples was torn down in 1972 and is now the site of the resort office and the Baumann’s residence.)

The framing of a barn stands in mute testimony to the power of a barn bee. Although the site of this picture has not been identified (tentatively placed just north of the town line in the South Westerlo or Lambs Corners area), this type of activity was repeated many times from the beginning of Greenville’s history until the early twentieth century. These bees not only accomplished a needed task but they also served as important social events during the year. In addition to raising a barn, a bee might harvest a crop, press hay, pick apples, make rugs, store food, cut ice, make quilts, and accomplish any other social event during the year where many hands could make a big task go faster.

John I. VerPlanck posed in 1969 in front of what was one of the area’s best known general stores. His father Isaac had operated a carriage making store (see July 1992) and when he died in 1912, Isaac’s brother-in-law Albert Bell continued for ten years. John I. took over the business in 1922, still dealing with wagons and sleighs but gradually adding a soda fountain, cigarettes, groceries, hardware and clothing. John’s son Jack worked at his father’s store from 1956 until 1982. A growing meat market supplied many of the area resorts. The store saw its prime from the 1940s until early 1960s. It was torn down the same month that this picture was taken, and was replaced by a structure that became an appliance showroom, with another addition in 1982 that carried furniture and floor covering. Today, the site is occupied by Siemag (inset).

Stanley Ingalls founded GNH, a lumber & sawmill & hardware business, in 1937 and it still anchors the western part of Norton Hill. Stanley’s son Randall (Buddy) joined the business in 1940 and designed the current office in 1953; the upper story (see inset) was built ten years later. Stanley’s second son Walter Ingalls joined the business in 1950, Buddy’s son Stanley joined in 1968, and Walter’s son Kevin in 1973. Many will remember the slab and sawdust piles of the 1960s and 1970s, and a sawmill on Old Plank Road in the early 1970s. This business was a continuation of the lumbering business that Truman Ingalls, father of Stanley, did in the area from about 1915 until the early 1930.

One of the half-dozen oldest active churches in the town, Freehold Congregational Church, located almost one-quarter mile east of Freehold on County Route 67, was formed in 1812 as the Christian Church of Freehold. The first structure was probably built by 1825. In 1915, the kerosene lamps were replaced by gas, which were replace eight years later by electricity. The stained glass windows were given in memorial of Yeomans Haight, Calvin and Alice Mygatt, Jotham Place, Mrs. John Jones, and Hannah and Leonard Vincent, while Mr. and Mrs. C.R. Lacy gave another. Long-term pastors included John Spoor (1816-1856) and Sion Lynam (1928-1928, 1967-1975).

This February 1940 scene of Greenville’s four corners evokes the reality of an eastern New York winter. This photo was probably taken from the upper floor of the Pioneer building and looks down east Main Street. A road sign on the telephone pole indicates Route 32 is the crossroad while the solidary person seems to have no reason to fear any traffic. The building on the right is the corner restaurant building (see Nov ‘97) that was razed in the early 1960s. On the left is a family residence, surrounded by a picket fence, which was torn down in the mid-1940s to make way for the gas station. Beyond the home is the Baumann building and the Steven store, on which one can make out the figures of two snow shovelers.

Main Street, Greenville Scene. The front cover was drawn nearly a dozen years ago my Mildred Reinhardt, one of several artists, who contributed to the 1977 United Methodist Church calendar in honor of the bicentennial. Another of Mildred’s works appeared on the cover of our very first calendar in 1991, a sketch of the Greenville Academy. A thank you goes to Mildred for her generous permission to use her sketch.

The Truman Ingalls Reunion of 1884 at the Lorenzo Hunt residence in Norton Hill (today’s Elliot house, next to the Methodist Church) drew young and old to a tradition that endures even today. An annual event since 1925, except for the four WWII years, the 71st Ingalls Reunion will be celebrated in 1999.

In July, 1997, two enterprising women, Susan Hulick (left) and Judy Ferrer (right), believed that the Greenville area was ready for another community paper, and published the first issue in October. With an office originally in Norton Hill and currently on Rt. 32, a mile south of Greenville’s four corners, that new paper, the Greenville Press, has already become one of Greenville’s institutions.

Built in 1989 as a thank you by the Greenville Central School band for the community’s fundraising that enabled the band to go to France, the gazebo celebrated its tenth birthday and has become one of Greenville’s identifying landmark.

In the summer of 1939, the Greenville Pond underwent one of the dredgings that happens every ten to twenty years. A.J. Cunningham, the man in the distance with the straw hat, is stacking rocks. The library building stands in the background. The inset picture shows a less back-breaking method in the 1970s. Recently, the pond again was dredged, probably the first time since the inset picture. (courtesy of Curt Cunningham, inset

Ten years ago, a new, national bicycle race, the Tour de Trump, found itself in the Greenville area in the summers of 1989 and 1990. This picture shows the peloton approaching Freehold’s four corners from east on County Route 67 ready to race up Route 32

Created in 1992 and officially opened in 1998, the 156 acre George V. Vanderbilt Park exists through the efforts of dozens of people. Especially instrumental in this early process were, left to right, Denise Mulligan, Debbie Magee and Ken Elsbree, through grant writing, planning, and volunteering of time.

Built in 1889 by William Vanderbilt, this South Street building remained a private residence until 1952 when Pierce and Ruth Stevens opened the Greenville Arms to the public. Eliot and Tish Dalton, owners since 1989, have renovated the Victorian style inn to become a nationally recognized retreat, especially for summer-long series of art workshops. The diagonal line across the photo is a result of a cracked glass plate negative.

This fishing derby around the Greenville pond captures the feeling of the late 1950s and early 1960s Greenville. The Vanderbilt Theater, torn down in the early 1980s, and shown in the center of the picture, provided entertainment for the community all summer long. Elm trees ring the pond but would soon succumb to an elm blight.

Centered in Norton Hill, Henry O’Keefe taxied the local community during the 1920s in his auto bus. Although area individuals were buying cars in growing numbers, people who had not yet purchased the newest modern technology could avail themselves to a ride from Henry, who would often go to Albany or Coxsackie, in addition to local destinations

This scene from South Street, Greenville, epitomizes a sophisticated country atmosphere with the reading of the newspaper in the side-yard swinging chair set. About 1905, photographer M.P. Stevens used large glass plate negatives to record a few dozen scene of Greenville of his time. Tentatively identified across the street are the current homes in the area of the Ellis family and the Randall family. The man and woman remain unidentified.

Sutton’s Garage presents a classic mid-1950s look for Freehold, one-tenth of a mile north of the four corners. Starting as a blacksmith shop, this building incorporated the new technology of the early twentieth century, the car, and provided service through the 1950s.

In 1961, Al Bryant, who had operated his general store in South Westerlo since the 1940’s, built a new structure, Bryant’s Supermarket, one mile north of Greenville’s four corners on Rt. 32. Originally occupying the space now utilized by the video and eye care business shown in the inset, Bryant’s was enlarged, re-located, and enlarged again to its current site. This picture is tentatively place in the mid-1960s.

see January 2000 for more

Sixteen historical markers dot the roadways of the Town of Greenville. Most recognize the founding and founders of Greenville, as well as other individuals and families. The 16th marker (in poor condition, located near the basic Creek, one quarter mile north of Rt. 81) notes: gristmill erected here in 1785 by David Hickok and Davis Denning. Another marker that has not been seen in years (located at mile north of Freehold) noted: early sawmill owned and operated by Eleazer Knowles stood on this site.

One of Greenville’s favorite wintertime activities was skating on the Greenville pond at the northwest corner of the town’s center. Cathedral-like elms ring the pond. The old Academy building (pre-1906) and the Presbyterian Church form a picture still recognizable today.

Completed in 1857, the Christ Episcopal Church was consecrated on October 22 of that year. The stone for the foundation came from the George Calhoun farm (recently owned by Mary Stevens) west of Greenville, and the stone for the building came from the Truman L Sanford farm east of the village (the Turon farm on Rt. 26), according to a church document. Nationally known architect Richard Upjohn drew up the plans. The earliest activities of the Episcopal Church refer to a marriage in 1805. The first building was consecrated in 1827 in East Greenville on Route 26 before the present building was erected on its current site. The Christ Episcopal Church rests a couple hundred yards north of Greenville’s four corners.

Perhaps the oldest house still standing in the hamlet of Freehold is the “Brown” house, located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Route 67 and Hempstead Lane. It was once the residence of Stephen Platt, one of Freehold’s founders. According to Beers’ 1884 history, the first meeting to elect town officers for the town of Freehold (included today’s Town of Greenville and area west) was held at the home of Stephen Platt in 1790. He was also a member of the NYS legislature in 1795. Later owners included the Jennings and King families. Thomas Brown acquired the house from Amos and Angela King in 1885 and his heirs sold it to Herman and Ethel Hempstead in 1952. Remodeling in recent years by later owners has changed the outside appearance from this early 1900s photo.

One of Greenville’s distinctive buildings before the 1940s would’ve been the house on the center’s northeast corner. Ransom Hinman is said to have been the first merchant on the site, referred to in a deed to the Presbyterian Church from Augustine Prevost in 1803. Information on the back of this picture indicates that the house was built by Edward Wackerhagan and his wife Janet Hart about 1880. They sold it O. C. Stevens who rented the house to Mrs. Peter Thomas, a milliner. Later, Mrs. Steve Hallenbeck, a dressmaker, occupied the house. About 1915, Lynn D. Wessels (operator of a garage in the blacksmith shop, today the site of the barbershop) bought the property. Pierce and William Stevens bought the property in 1945 and then sold it to the Standard Oil Company in 1946 to make way for a gas station.

The classes of 1916 at the Freehold school pose. Their teacher (not shown) was Ethel Cozine. Shown are: front row – Ruth Hunt, Curtis Lacey, Beulah Sutton, Dorothy Story, Rudolph Delamater, Charley Garrison, Alice Hunt, Chester Phinney, Herman Story; back row – Floyd Simpkins, Jesse Hallock, Marion Beers, Ruth Youmans, Myrtle Hood (behind Ruth Youmans), Leonard Buell (bent over and out of sight), Ophelia Buell, Rose Palmer, Harry Gibbons, Mary Phinney, Searles Seabridge. Their one room schoolhouse is now the Freehold fire station. Boys’ fascination with guns is shown by the toy guns in the hands of Rudolph, Charlie and Chester.

Otto Birmann founded Birmann Farm in 1917 as a boarding house on today’s Route 26 about a mile east of Greenville. He had emigrated from Switzerland in 1906 to New Jersey before moving to his Greenville farmhouse. Otto’s son Walter joined the enterprise that saw a name change (Rainbow Lodge from 1937 to 1976), a major addition to the main house in 1939, the building of the casino in 1941, the creation of a nine-hole golf course in 1956-1958, and the building of motel units in 1964. In 1976, Walter’s sons Walter and Carl took control of the business with Walter managing Rainbow Golf Club (north side of the road) and Carl managing Rainbow Lodge and Restaurant (south side of the road, right inset). The concrete dog on the lawn, although relocated, has been a fixture for years.

Summer in the 1940s met hoisting horse-drawn loose hay into the hay mow on the Stanton-Brown farm on the corner of Old Plank Road and Carter Bridge Road in Norton Hill. Frank Brown, on ground, supervises: l–r George Palmer, son Lee Brown, and two boarders. Lee’s grandmother, Francis Smith Stanton (or Frankie, as she was affectionately called), started taking in boarders in 1901, naming her boarding house Mountain View Farm and then Balsam Shade Retreat. Later, the name would change to Stanton-Brown. Frankie’s children Omar Stanton and Cora Stanton (she married first Burton Winnie and then Frank Brown, and raised four sons) worked the farm and boarding house, a combination that became an economic mainstay in the area throughout the mid-20th century.

Maggie Evans Cathcart (left) poses with her brother’s (James Evans) stagecoach. The coach carried mail and passengers to Coxsackie, Greenville and Medusa. A November 10, 1881 edition of a local paper attests that Evans was employed from Coxsackie when the previous carrier refused to stop in Greenville. James’s son George survived a publicized 1891 accident when he was about 14 years old, falling on and clinging to the coach’s whiffletree. Many years later, the coach would be used in movies.

The beginning of Bryant’s Supermarket (noted in the 1999 calendar) is shown in this mid-1970s aerial shot, before the creation of the mall. In the lower left is Clapper’s Laundromat, and in the lower right is the Central Hudson building that still stands on the spot. A single vehicle drives south on Rt. 32; the towering parking lot night light has not yet been erected. Beyond the store, many of the residences visible still stand.

One-half mile north of the four corners stood this stately brick house of Lewis Sherrill, a prominent farmer/citizen of Greenville’s 19th century. Records indicate the house was built in the 1840s, with a number of additions to follow. Twentieth century owner George V. Vanderbilt is memorialized with the 155 acre town park named after him. On May 3, 1999, despite publicity and a fundraising effort, the new owner razed all the structures on the property, thus giving attention to the need for Greenville to attend to historical preservation. The inset shows the rubble pile.

The oldest of Greenville’s current bank structures is that of the National Bank of Coxsackie, located on Rt. 81 between the pond and Cunningham’s. This bank opened in its temporary spot in a small building across the street which would become Mary’s in March 1965 and relocated to its permanent site in November 1966. Further renovations led to a grand re-opening in September 1996. The upper inset shows Elsie Roe’s house that had stood on the site.

Greenville Map

In the early 20th century it was much easier to move the sawmill to the wood, and not the other way around. This portable sawmill, located on Red Mill Road, about one-quarter mile north of Rt 67, approximately across the street from the Staunch house, feeds the local need for lumber. In the distance, one sees the road snaking its deforested way up the Brundage Hill, today the site of the Spinner and Buel families. In the picture, Harmon Becker has his arm around Elmer Simmons; Albertus Becker (Harmon’s father) leans on the hook; on the far right might be Lon Hale; to Lon’s left is Jeff Simmons (Elmer’s father); the sixth man is Garrett Becker. No current picture is available because of brush and tree growth.

Andrew Roe bought this property on the southwest corner of today’s Rt 81 and Red Mill Road in 1873, and built this house by 1875. Andrew and his wife Ida had a daughter Jenny (born 1872) who married Charles Simpson. Standing in front of the house are Andrew Roe, Ida Roe, Jenny Roe, and an unidentified person. Jenny would live in this house until 1960. Today Mario and Carol Panzarino, who bought the house in 1986, operate the house as the Homestead Bed & Breakfast, welcoming guests from around the world.

A family with a sense of humor, the Griffins pose among the ladder rungs in front of their house on Red Mill Road, about 200 yards north of the Red Mill. From left to right, father Bert Griffin holds daughter Ruth (m. Harry Eisert) on his lap, Margaret (m. Otto Fuegmann), Louis (m. Margaret Smith), Max (m. Edna Heinick), Evans (m. Esther Spaulding), Elmira (m. Carroll Booth), Burdette (m. Evangeline Snyder), Estella (m. Charles Leslie Abrams), Elizabeth (m. Alfred Burnett), and mother Rhue Evans Griffin. The Griffin family in Greenville dates back three more generations before Bert – his father Bloomer, grandfather Smith, and great-grandfather Marcus.

What was once fine for horse and wagon was becoming uncomfortable and unsafe for the auto. The New York State Erwin Plan of the 1950s helped towns upgrade the roadways. The upper left picture shows 1954 Red Mill Road, about one-half mile south of Alberta Lane, between the Fred Simpson and Harmon Becker residences. Upper right shows beginning of the project with l-r: Edwin Hart (EP Engin.), Jos. Heck (Dir. of Co. & Town Rds NYS), Francis Decker (on bulldozer), Arnold Nicholsen (Tn. Gr. Supervisor), John Parks (Tn. Gr. Super. of Highways), Bruno Mongardi (owner of Lea Constr. Co). Bottom left shows the improved section of road. Bottom right shows the roadway today.

A classic Greenville four corners picture invites us into Greenville’s history. On the left, cathedral-like elm trees ring the pond. The Tommy Knowles Memorial watering trough, now a planter, anchors the northwest corner. Milo Deyo’s blacksmith shop sits where the barbershop is today (a wheel is visible in the open door). On the right, the picket fence wraps around the corner and around the house that sat on the northeast corner. A dirt North Road, today’s Rt. 32, paralleled with the flagstone sidewalk, disappears into the distance past the Presbyterian and Episcopal churches.

In 1906, the students of District #1, Norton Hill pose for this picture. Bottom: Raymond Ingalls, Frank Hallenbeck, Clarence Ingalls, Stanley Ingalls, Niles VanAuken, Ray Hunt, Burdette Bear, Robert Francis, Perry Stevens; 2nd: Grace VerPlanck, Helen Hallenbeck (behind Grace), Gladys Simpson, Cora Stanton, Hattie Gifford, Bertie Farley, Elgirtha Ingalls, Ruth Ingalls, Helen Tripp, Harold Bell, Lois Tripp, Jane? Francis; 3rd: Earl VanAuken, Merritt Francis, William Hall – teacher, Grace Bell (front of teacher), Clara Tryon, Agnes Baker, Eleanor Goff (front of Baker), Phyllis Simpson, Bertha Davis, Floyd Tryon, Lloyd Tryon, John Searles; 5th (back row of five girls): Mildred Hallenbeck, Vera Gardner, Carrie Ingalls, Bertha Ingalls, Edna Davis; top Mrs. Wm. Hull, Minnie Davis; right rear: Truant Officer Joseph Alverson.

A quiet, summer day awaits mid-1930s north East Main Street, Greenville. The building on the left was, and is, Baumann’s store. (Baker once had the store; a Ralph Youmans lived in the back.) Next is Stevens’ general store, today’s NAPA building. Next is Baker’s store and restaurant, demolished in the 1980s to make way for the True Value store. The picket fence stood in front of the Simpson house. The next buildings, mostly hidden by the foliage, were the barbershop (now, Dale Dorner’s law office), Frank Aiello’s vegetable stand, the town building, the printing press (with a garage in the back), the firehouse (which was a garage, butcher shop, liquor store, and recently demolished to make way for Stewart’s). A’32 Chevrolet parks in front of Steven’s Store.

This busy thoroughfare, North Street in Greenville, today’s Rt 32, is frozen in time with Addison Hickok driving his oxen to town, near today’s north driveway of the elementary school. Believed to be taken in the early 1900s, this picture shows not only the dirt roads and less speedy form of transportation, but also the houses on the east side of the road – the Vaughn house, the Powell house, and so on up the street. Addison lived in the Wickes house (located across the road from Bryant’s Country Square), the red house that was demolished in 1998.

The Presbyterian Church of Greenville, located one-tenth mile north of the four corners on Rt 32, is one of the dominant buildings of Greenville. Built on land donated by Augustine Prevost, this structure is the fourth one on the site, completed in 1860 after a 1859 fire destroyed the third structure. The church was first organized in 1790, with its first minister Beriah Hotchkin. Long-term pastors include Ezekiel VanDyck who served 35 years from 1893-1928, and Harold Page, the church’s most recent pastor from 1967-1999. Mainstays of the church for the 20th century’s second half have been Harry and Clarissa Ketchum, Clerks of the session, and Vi Reed, organist.

Ingalside Resort started as many area boarding houses did. In 1914, Warren and Margaret Ingalls began taking a few borders a week on the farm they had purchased the year before. After a disastrous Christmas day fire in 1924, the Ingallses rebuilt, added a ballfield in 1928-1929, indoor plumbing (1925), a pool (1933), electricity (1932, self-generated since 1922), and many building additions until a full house neared 200 guests. Son Gerald and his wife Annella assumed management in 1948, eventually selling in 1972 to Franklyn and Joyce Roth, who in turn sold to a New York investment firm in 1990.

The Kaiser tin shop, on the corner of Rt 81 and Surprise-Result Road, was built in June 1920 and operated into the 1930s by George Kaiser and later with his son Fred. The building was demolished in April, 1965 to make way for the widened Rt 81. The Kaisers would make tin utensils (bread boxes, filing cabinets), and would install ceilings and canisters. A kiln was used for the painting of the tin, and the machinery was foot-operated. In the winter, a bobsled would take the products to Coxsackie for sale.

Middle class Greenville of about 1905 shows in this room, tentatively identified as the Stevens’ residence on South Street, today the location of Rossie Smith. This picture was developed from the glass plate negatives from the M. P. Stevens collection, several pictures of which have graced GLHG calendars over the past ten years.

A view of the northern Catskills Escarpment, stretching from the Durham Hills and Windham High Peak in the west to Blackhead and Stoppel point in the east, awaits the traveler of many of Greenville’s ridges and roads.

Shelves of potions, powders, medications in their glass containers comprise this classic rural drugstore interior of about 1905. Featured in several past calendar pages, the drugstore anchored east Main Street. Past drugstore proprietors have included Avery, McCabe, Hallenbeck, Ales, and Quackenbush. For an exterior view, see the April page in this calendar

Main Street, Greenville faces a February 15, 1926 snow storm. The age of automobile meant roads needed to be cleared, and giant snow banks needed to be cleared. This photo shows the range of buildings from the northeast corner, starting with the house on the corner (site of today’s Mobil station), the Baumann site (with the tower), Stevens store (site of 2001 NAPA), and Baker’s (site of 2001 True Value). The person remains unidentified.

Located one-quarter mile west of Greenville’s four corners, on Rt. 81, St. John the Baptist Church was erected in 1933 to serve Catholic followers. The early parish was led by Fathers Crowley, Downey, Thompson, and McGarrahan. In the mid-1950s, a parish hall provided space for church activities and for church services when the number of parishioners surpassed the capacity of the original church. In 1967, the current church building was built to accommodate a growing congregation, and the history of the church was recorded in the 1968 book “Saint John the Baptist, Greenville, New York.”

One of Greenville’s most famous photographs is that of the reputed first car in Greenville. According to the story, the daughter of famous financier Jay Gould was on her way to the family summer home in Roxbury. Traveling the opposite direction was Gideon Hickok and his oxen. The meeting of both in front of McCabe’s Drugstore, Main Street, is captured for later generations to enjoy.

May Day was an important school event in the late 1920s and early 1930s, according to photographic history. A king and queen were selected, and ceremonies were held, with all the students clustered in the front yard inside the outer circle of dozens of adults. This view, taken across from the cemetery entrance, with students on their way to the event, shows the corner of the new Pioneer building, the amusement hall, the fire truck house, and the Vanderbilt Theater. On the right edge is the Roe house (the 2001 site of the National Bank of Coxsackie).

Drawing in loose hay before hay balers were available, Abner Olden and his horses, Maud and Kit, plod toward his farm just east of the intersection of today’s Routes 67 and 41, near the former Pine Springs (today’s Miracle Mountain). The intersection is just behind the wagon. It is told the Olden was a tenth-generation Mayflower descendent of John Alden. All buildings on his farm the graced the first rise above the intersection fell into disrepair or were burned.

Summertime fun meant swimming in the Basic Creek beside the Freehold Mills resort. Operated by the Andreattas, the resort is named for one of the mills that was an 1800s mainstay. Part of the creek was diverted to make a raceway, or separate waterway, to provide power to the mill. This resort was one of about 40 in the Greenville area around 1960.

West Main Street of the 1920s shows the Glen Royal hotel (site of today’s Pioneer building), the dance hall, the fire truck building, and the Vanderbilt Theater on the left. On the right is the Cunningham house, the Avery house (2001 – Schwartz), and the Botsford house.

Accommodating guests and travelers along the Schoharie Turnpike once again, the renovated Freehold Country Inn serves as a tribute to the efforts of Ben Buel. He began renovation in October 1998, and the building open for business in March 1999 as a fine dining restaurant. The carriage house (left) was renovated for gatherings (banquets, weddings, private parties, etc.) of up to 150 guests. Shown are owners Ben & Terry Buell, Max Suhner, and in the inset, Salah Alygad.

Rod and Mary Talmadge enjoy a carriage ride, possibly near their home on today’s Ingalside Road, just a few hundred feet north and across from Ingalside resort. Rod’s taxidermy was featured in the 1992 calendar. Roswell (“Rod”) Charles Talmadge (1858-1941), son of Charles Roswell Talmadge and Elizabeth and Hickok married in 1901 Mary Vanderbilt Hickok (1883-1960, only daughter of Addison Hickok and Carolyn Reed. Mary’s death in 1960 led to one of the legendary house auctions in Greenville history.

This stone arch allowed the still unnamed creek to flow into the Greenville pond. On the right is Wessel’s garage, the site of the former blacksmith shop (today the site of Flack’s Barbershop. Further up the road is the cemetery entrance, as well as the Charlotte Story house which has since been razed. When the arch was demolished is unknown but the best guess is when the creation of State Route 32, about 1930, necessitated a level road.

A familiar sight in Greenville’s boarding house heyday, Jesse’s Elm Shade stood on the property near the intersection of Irving Road and Route 32, today the site of Greenwood Apartments. City guests would stay for a week, or weeks, at a farmhouse operated by John and Vida Lowe, which in turn was operated by Warren Jesse. The main house was torn down in the 1980s, and the guest room cabins were renovated into today’s apartments. The incline in the inset marks the spot of the main house. A nearby historic marker notes that this location was first settled by the Spees family.

Historical marker noting the founding of Greenville

A late-January thaw in 1938 makes for a sloppy Greenville pond surrounded by cathedral-like elms. This photo, probably taken from the Pioneer, shows Rt. 32 along the right side, and taking center stage is the Academy/Library building. Note the presence of the Academy annex even though the central school building was completed in 1932.

From the Town minutes comes the important issues of the day. One of the earliest town laws dictated the control of hogs. “Voted that all hogs one year old and upwards may run at large being yoked with a yoke 20 inches long, and that all swine under the age of one year being yoked with a yoke 12 inches long. Owners allowing hogs to run at large unyoked shall be liable to a fine of 50 cents for each offense.” Also found in the town minutes are the identification marks, similar to brands, that each owner was assigned. The very first ones are shown here.

When the Freehold steel bridge needed replacement in the mid-1930s, a detour was created just a few feet downstream. Cars drove across the temporary bridge and, on the west side, would enter today’s Hempstead Lane before continuing on. The latest Freehold bridge replacement was tentatively scheduled for fall, 2002.

Harnessing the power of the Cobb Creek tributary that flows through Surprise, this sawmill operated until it burned about 1920. Posing for this photo were: and unidentified man, C. Boyd, L. Boyd, Theron Hart, Ford Milkins, Andrew Hughes, Milton Whitmore, W. Boyd, Leonard Hughes, and Jr. Smith.

Superintendent of Highways Stanley Ingalls stands proudly with the technology of the mid-1930s. To his right is fellow highway worker Ray Hunt.

The Greenville Central School Class of 1933 celebrates its 70th graduation anniversary in 2003. In the front: Mary Barkman, Florence Shook, Lawrence Applebee, Edna Ingalls, Merle Powell, Mary Potter, Margaret Story; Row 2: Evelyn Brand, Eugene Raffo, Beatrice Swart, Ruth Wood, Myrtle Kendall, Esther Nickerson, Eloise Roe, Hazel Parks, William Siddall, Margaret Goff; back: Donald Blenis, Paul Augstein, John Cartledge, Albert Talmadge, Sheldon Ives, Herbert Cook, Reinhold Schermer, Maynard Makely

The family of James and Elizabeth (Purinton) Evans lived on Ingalside Road, approximately one-third mile from the Rt. 81 intersection. In the back row are sons George and Lewis, daughter Rhue (later married Burdette Griffin, Sr.), and son Arthur and his wife Flora (Sanford). In the front are Elizabeth and James Evans’ daughter Elizabeth (sitting; later married Grover Brown), and James’s sister Maggie (Evans) Cathcart who lived across the street in the house today owned by Joan Rice. The house, which stood on the west side of the road, burned on February 19, 1913, leaving only the stone foundation as evidence.

West Street (today’s Rt 81) curves over the horizon on its way to West Greenville and Norton Hill. On the right is today’s Cunningham Funeral Home, the Avery/Schwartz/Nobis residence/office building, and the Botsford/Clark/Angle house in the distance. On the left is the home of Dr. Charles McCabe, now the Lee Cunningham residence. This photo comes from a color postcard, the type that often derives from the 1910-1925 era.

The residence of Phil and Barbara Flach anchors the southwest corner of the intersection of Newry Road and CR 38, the center of the area known as Newry, a stagecoach/mail stop in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This house was constructed by Nathan Swartout in approximately 1850, and later owned by Emery Palmer. Before Phil and Barbara bought the house in 1970, Phil’s parents - Joe and Elizabeth Flach -had owned the house since 1948.

The seventy-fifth annual Ingalls Reunion, to be held in 2003, celebrates the lives of the descendants of Jacob Ingalls who arrived in this area in 1793. The first reunion found 88 attendees braving a near blizzard on October 10, 1925, and the reunion tradition has continued except for the four WWII years. This photo, taken at the yard of the Stevens/Elliott house next to the Methodist Church on Rt 81, Norton Hill, memorializes the 1931 reunion which, according to the invitation, met at the public hall. Local surnames, in addition to Ingalls, include Stevens, Rugg, Gordon, Gardiner, Gardner, Mabie, Parks, Elliott, Smith, Goff, Winans, VerPlanck, Story, Hunt, Ostrander, Hannay, Adams, Irish, Williams, Dedie, Jennings, Cook, Ellis, McAneny and more.

This fading ghost on Big Woods Road, the Shaw Homestead, had seen much better days before this 1970s photo, and represents the invisible history of things that once were. The oak tree still stands even though the house burned about 1980. Preservation of our historic architecture requires not only friendly legislation but also the persistent care of owners.

A birdseye view from Stevens Hill shows a turn of the century Greenville hamlet. In the right foreground lies the cemetery. At the left is visible the steeple of the Presbyterian Church, the chapel (the bottom showing through the trees; today’s Boy Scout site), and the distinctive double pitch of the Episcopal Church. In the background are the hills of West Greenville and South Westerlo. Stevens Hill is the first steep hill on Rt 26, the property of which is still owned by the Stevens family. This photo was developed from a glass plate negative taken by M. P. Stevens.

Dot Hesel’s quilt is reproduced for this calendar

Upon the centennial of the Pioneer Cooperative Fire Insurance Company, a photo album highlighting the company’s history was created. This photo, dated tentatively in the mid-1920s shows: back: Frederick Merigold, Frank Tucker, William Stevens, Everett Palmer, James C. Stevens, Dr. Charles McCabe, Ira Tolley, Robert Atwater, John H. Sanford, George Van Valkenberg, R. C. Lacy, Walter E. Stevens, Ernest E. Ford, Charles Bagley, W. P. Elsbree; front: Marion Garretson, Mildred Adriance, Elsie Roe, Anna Wickham, Elizabeth Burnett, Marietta Hedges, Ethel Mead, Lula Cooley, Clara Hartt. The building in the background was once the Hartt Store, located approximately on today’s Pioneer parking lot exit on Rt. 32. The building we know today as the Pioneer building was built in 1928, and is now the Town a Greenville office building (as of 2003) (see also April and July).

Welcoming travelers to Greenville, the Hallenbeck’s Drugstore sign stood atop the hill we locally know as Carelas’s Hill (or Budd, or Fish), about one-half mile south on Rt. 32. The structures seen under the sign still stand. The lot on the right was bulldozed in the 1960s to become what many people know as Carelas Lake (or more recently named Lake Barbara by the current owners).

This bank served Greenville’s needs in 1965 before the permanent structure across the street could be built the following year. This structure, expanded upon a handful of times, became Mary’s Restaurant, and was demolished to make way for the Cumberland Farms expansion.

The Greenville Hotel had just been razed, and a new Pioneer building was under construction in 1928. This building is now the Town of Greenville office building. On the right, through the metal girders, one can see the ghostly figure of the Vanderbilt Theater (see November).

Man and machine tame the fields of Ingalside, home for Gerald “Jerry” Ingalls (1912 to 1995). Gerald’s family operated Ingalside farm on Ingalside Road from 1914 to 1972. Photos of agriculture in the 20th century are sparse in the Historian’s files, and the loaning of photos to be duplicated would be appreciated

The pride of Greenville Free Academy, the basketball team (circa 1930-1931) strikes a team pose. Left to right: Russell Baumann, Arnold Nicholsen, Maynard Makely, Lee Cunningham, Elmer Carlson, Joe Slater, Bill Vaughn, Roland Young, Merle Powell, Ken Lawyer, Charles Radick – coach, Scott Ellis – principal.

An aerial view from about 1960 shows Greenville’s four corners. On the left is the Corner Restaurant, razed in the mid-1960s. The distinctive building uppermost is the carriage house of the Greenville Arms. The Pioneer building still anchors the southwest corner, and to its right since the Vanderbilt Theater (see November). The pond, with a neatly laid up but precipitously edged wall, faces the barely visible edge of the Mobil Station awning across the street.

Although located outside the Town of Greenville’s boundaries, Vince Anna’s represents the many businesses and people who are part of our local history. In 1939/1940, Vincent and Anna Eufemia bought a dairy and fruit (apples and pears) farm from John Seymour. In 1945, they created Vince Anna’s Restaurant which, with the help of their three children – Jim, Charles, and Ginny – has serve the areas culinary and entertainment needs. Jim assumed a major role in the business in 1965, and, he, along with his wife Brenda and daughter Teresa Eufemia-McNerney, continue the tradition.

The Greenville Free Academy published an information booklet, about 1880, with this page about its modern curriculum. Other pages list board of education, instructors, calendar, tuition, textbooks, and general rules of conduct and procedure.

This photo was inadvertently used. This Red Mill is located in Claverack, Columbia County. The caption as used:—-Located on Red Mill Road, almost a mile south of the intersection once known as West Greenville (four corners of Rt 81, Ingalside Road, and Red Mill Rd), the Red Mill is one of the area’s last vestiges of our early history of water-powered industries. Earlier calendar pages (Sep 1991, Mar 1993, Oct 1996) have shown the importance of the structure, along with the adjacent sawmill, to the local area.

Awash in the fading light and shadows of a setting sun, the last days of the Vanderbilt Theater are captured before its demolition in June 1982. The original structure had served as an Episcopal Church in East Greenville before being moved to the site now occupied by Cumberland Farms (adjacent to the stream from the pond). Serving the community as an entertainment center (plays, movies, lectures, sporting events, etc.), the building was last used as a NAPA store.

The 50th wedding anniversary of Madison and Ella Stevens on October 16, 1939, brought together family and friends. Standing are: Rev. and Mrs. Ernest Glenn, Muriel Wooster, Marion Rose Stevens, William P. Stevens, Margaret Stevens Tolley, Pierce W. Stevens, Courtney W. Tolley, Barbara Ellen Tolley, William W. Talley, Margaret Ann Tolley, Ruth Sanford Hook, C. Homer Hook; seated are: Alice W. Sanford, Peter R. Stevens, Betty Stevens, Molly Stevens, Naomi Baker, Maud E. Wooster, Madison P. Stevens, Ella W. Stevens, Charles E. Wooster, Fradelia V. Vaughn, and Edith Wood.

Claribel Gardiner’s sketch of Norton Hill shown on the cover was one of the several she drew for the 1976 Bicentennial Calendar

A February 1942 snow scene captures the essence of winter on east Main Street, Greenville. This photo looks east from the four corners, with a view in the distance up the hill we know today as Rt. 26 (Stevens Hill).

A Pioneer Co-operative Fire Insurance Company office vignette is captured in this photo of about 1912. Shown, left to right, are: Clara Hartt, Orrin C. Stevens, Fanny Sanford, Edith Budd, James Stevens, and Lottie Wooster. This photo comes from a commemorative album on the 101st anniversary of the company in 1957. The insurance company had occupied the southwest corner of Rts. 81 and 32 since 1928, when the brick edifice was built, until the town recently bought the building for town offices.

Gloria Darrah, P. A., has served more than twenty years in Greenville’s history of medical care. After 14 years in East Berne, Gloria came to Greenville in 1984 with the goal of not only providing quality primary care but also of bringing an array of services under one roof. One of New York’s first Physician Assistants to own her own practice, she partnered, first, with Dr. Smith, and, later, with Dr. Morgenstern.

One of the GLHG’ S community recognitions (see also July), George Story’s business life has centered on vegetable farming and the nursery trade. The son of Clinton and Gladys Story, and grandson of Ralph Story, George was born in Freehold. As a teenager, George sold vegetables to local businesses. He graduated from Cornell, operated a roadside vegetable stand, and developed the business we know today as Story’s Nursery. However, it is George’s service to the community that the GL HG recognizes. He was a school board member for nineteen years, is a Mason, and has served as a member of a variety of business and advisory committees. Most noticeably, George has volunteered his time, efforts and goods for community fundraising efforts.

When Main Street (Rt. 81), Norton Hill was a less traveled thoroughfare, an occasional cattle drive marched by. The building shown served Norton Hill as its school house until the centralization of the Greenville Central school District in 1930 and the new central building (the current elementary building) was utilized in 1932. Currently this building is connected to, and serves, the Norton Hill-Greenville Methodist Church as a Nursery School, Sunday School and meeting room.

Wayne Nelsen (project director and Freehold Country Store proprietor) and Bunny and Phil Savino (project coordinators and Freehold residents) spearheaded the Freehold Beautification Project that reshaped Main Street ambience with placement of sidewalks, lights, benches, trees and a clock tower. Leading to this, a county project replaced an aging bridge but had also cut down the street’s largest trees, leading to protests, petitions, and grants from the town, county and state.

One of the two GLHG’s community recognitions (see also April), Gary, Gail and Wayne Nicholsen have carried on the tradition of the parents (Arnold and Mae) and grandparents (Peter and Gurine). The first two generations have been recognized in previous calendars – September 1995 and Cover 2002. Sunny Hill Resort, on Sunny Hill Road, has evolved into one of the area’s finest resorts, drawing thousands of tourists into the area each year. However, it is the selfless commitment to community service the GLHG recognizes. Each has contributed his and her time and energy to community projects, perhaps with Gary the most recognizable (GCS School Board). Still, it is their combined generosity that has not only allowed for the community use of their grounds and buildings for area events but also has witnessed their coordination and unstinting participation in the many fundraising efforts of our town.

Stacks of neatly piled, fresh-cut lumber dot this 1957 backyard of the GNH Lumber Company in Norton Hill. GNH occupied that Norton Hill site from 1937 until 2004 when it assumed the space formerly used by Ames in the Bryant’s Country Plaza, one mile north of Greenville’s four corners.

Shane and Mitzie Pilato’s (inset) loving touches can be seen in the renovation of their home (also locally known as the Nehemiah Ramsdell house, whose family owned it from 1836 to 1903). Bought by the Pilatos in 1999, this structure was in jeopardy of being demolished. The Pilatos’ efforts (shown in the before and after photos), and others like theirs, are most welcome, not only for restoring the good looks of the structures of the area, but also for respecting the historic nature of its community

The King family and their descendants farmed the King Hill area from the 1790s until the 1990s. This family pose shows (back) Obadiah and Ella King with Ella’s mother, “Grandma” Cowell, on their left. In front sit Obadiah and Ella’s daughter and son-in-law, Bertha and Clair Weeks, and grandson Clinton Weeks.

Frank Giorgini (owner and internationally known artist) and Ana Sporer (owner and chef) bought an old ice cream shop (located at the intersection of Rt 67, Red Mill Road, and Hempstead Lane in Freehold) last used nearly 50 years ago, preserved the interior that had not been touched since its last use, and transformed a quietly decrepit building into Ruby’s Hotel. This French-Eclectic restaurant features an Art Deco bar and soda fountain. Frank and Ana’s efforts exemplify a preservationist spirit that serves the town well.

Posing in 1893, this Stanton family portrait captures the taste of the day. Frances and Oscar Stanton flank their son Omar. The Stantons lived on the corner of Main Street and Carter Bridge Road in Norton Hill. A daughter of this couple, Cora, had four sons, one of whom, Lee Brown, still lives on the family homestead on Old Plank Road.

Representations of all fifteen covers (1991-2005) of the Greenville Local History Group calendar are shown on the cover and this page. These “historical documents” have reproduced over 200 images of Greenville history, as well as recognized the efforts of nearly 25 individuals. (No calendars were published in 2006 - 2008.

Representations of all fifteen covers (1991-2005) of the Greenville Local History Group calendar are shown on the cover and this page. These “historical documents” have reproduced over 200 images of Greenville history, as well as recognized the efforts of nearly 25 individuals. (No calendars were published in 2006 - 2008.}

In March 1950, John and Isabel (Stroell) Singer purchased a house, barn, and outbuildings on Alberta Lane, about two miles northwest of Freehold. Previous owners included John Sirgant, Ivan & Maude Arnold, and Ernest & Grace Slater. The Singers renovated the main house several times, transformed the barn’s second floor into the Hayloft Nightclub, and added 21 motel units, a cottage bungalow and their own private home while they operated the Alberta Lodge Resort until 1979. The inset shows the remodeled dining room area of the early 1970s.

A relic of our near past, this miracle mile sign alerted 1960s-1990s passers-by of the aspiring businesses in Norton Hill on State Route 81, an unchanging sign even as some of these businesses closed or moved. The mile stretched from the GNH site on the west end a couple hundred yards east of New Ridge Road to the first small valley east of the hamlet.

Faithful Tom and Jerry help Burdette Griffin plow one of his back fields at his newly acquired farm, Balsam Shade, located on State Route 32 on the Albany/Green County line, in 1935. Burdette, along with his wife Evangeline, added hotel units, a casino, a pool, and all the other amenities that so typically exemplified the mid-century boardinghouse/resort of the Greenville area. Burdette, the son of Burdette, Sr., and Rhue Griffin, died in 2008 at the age of 102, marking one of Greenville’s longest residencies. (This field is the site of the recent balloon festivals.)

The Corner Restaurant was razed in the early 1960s, part of the widening/upgrading of Route 81. Long a business fixture on Greenville’s southeast four corners, this building served as a restaurant, ice cream store, IGA store, shoemaker shop, and even as school room space. This building played a significant role in the 1935 Glenn murder case that was Greenville’s “crime of the century.”

Graduating eighteen years ago, the Greenville Free Academy’s Class of 1929 posed for one of life’s milestones: Back row: Raymond Story, Gerald Ingalls, Christina Hallett, Edna Heinick, Dorothea Jennings, Charles Stevens, Gordon Abrams; Front Row: Hazel Gardner, Ruth Gardner, Marie Bullivant, Julia Anderson, Barbara Wickham, Edna Irish, Ida Stone; Missing: Esther Palmer, Ella Tryon.

This recently married couple, Merritt Elliott (1898-1989, son of Edith Merritt and Peter Elliott) and Ruth Ingalls (1900-1996, daughter of Carrie Spalding and Truman Ingalls) enjoy a carriage ride near the Ingalls homestead on Old Plan Road in Norton Hill (near junction with Johnnycake Lane).

Alvah Sutton operated his blacksmith shop (1906-1912) a couple hundred yards north of Freehold’s four corners (today’s junction of SR 32 and CR 67). The men, tentatively identified as Lorenzo Hale and Alvah Sutton, posed for this 1909 scene, a scene which would drastically change with the building of a garage in 1912, marking the advent of the automotive era. Sutton’s Garage was a Freehold mainstay into the 1960s (compare August 1992).

These Norton Hill and Greenville men, dressed in their fine Sunday clothes, pause from their target shooting to pose for this late 1920s photo at an undetermined site. They are tentatively identified as: back: Harry Adriance, Harry Yeomans, Sr., Harold Woodruff, Erwin Yeomans; front: Ford Rundell, Ken Hallock, Wilbur Cornell, Wilbur Baumann.

July 12, 1924 finds Greenville’s southwest corner firmly anchored by a neatly manicured Glen Royal Hotel, owned and operated by Helen and Harold C. Woodruff. This corner features prominently in past calendar photos. Note the planks crossing the dirt road, flower boxes, the ice cream store in back, the dance hall beyond that, and the double-level roof of the Vanderbilt Theater (today’s Cumberland Farm site) on the far right. On the far left is the hill that rises behind South Street.

On the left, Main Street garage had served many area automobiles under the watchful eye of the Simpson family – Gordon and Evie. On the right is a utilitarian building that served as a firehouse, election polling place, dress shop, and liquor store. Many will remember that a few cars crashed into the building. Both structures were demolished to make way for Stewart’s (inset).

This 1960 aerial of Greenville shows the main outline of modern Greenville, with some obvious changes. Running horizontally across the lower photo is Route 32, from just north of Carelas’s Hill a half mile south of the four corners and extending, on the photo’s right, almost to the corner of Irving Road. Route 81 runs from top left until it meets Rt 32. The pattern of dots in the center is the trees of the orchard that marks the site of today’s GCS Middle and High Schools. To the right of the school property is that of the Vanderbilt farm, today the town park. Snaking across the top of the photo is the Basic Creek

C. Gardiner sketch of Norton Hill Church

The site occupied by today’s Cumberland Farms (on Rt 81 west, within throwing distance of the four corners) was much a different one in the 1930s. Vanderbilt Theater, the cultural center of the town, is adorned with a cap of snow. The smaller structure served as the office of this gas station, and also as a used car lot office, a branch of the Coxsackie National Bank in the 1960s, before starting as the iconic Mary’s Restaurant. Mary’s, later enlarged, was razed in the 1990s.

Richard Edwin Taylor (left; 1829-1909) kept a diary from 1858-1902. Twenty-nine years old when he started recording, Taylor wrote every day, capturing a plethora of details about daily life, family events, and community connections. He married Louisa Utter (1831-1916) in 1857. Although we have no photo of her, Louisa’s father, Bani Utter (b. 1795 at Oak Hill, died 1869; fifth child of James Utter who was one of Oak Hill’s first settlers), is shown on the right. The details of the diary were brought to life from Harriett’s longhand transcription and subsequent annual summaries that were presented to Greenville Local History Group meetings. Richard and Louisa’s children included Howard (mar. Augusta Sammons, Elizabeth Schaefer, six ch.); Addie (mar. Bronk Van Slyke, 2 ch.); Isabel (mar. George Allen, 5 ch); Dwight (unmarried); Cora Mae (infant); and Mary (mar. Henry Hedges, 3 ch).

The preservation/conservation of our town’s historic structures continues. In 2006, Diane (proprietor of The Cutting Corner) and Mark Martinez bought the Lacy House and renovated the interior and exterior structure, reinvigorating one of Freehold’s landmarks. The Lacy House has anchored Freehold’s northeast corner for over 150 years. The Lacy family, a century and more ago, owned the store that anchors the northwest corner; the same Lacy family is associated with the Catskill car dealership.

A rare rowing across the Greenville Pond reflects the structures of West Street (today’s Rt 81). The Roe house (with the vines) was razed to make way for the National Bank of Coxsackie in the 1960s. Almost seamless behind it is Cunningham’s – a residence, funeral parlor, and, at its earliest, a store. The view beyond traces Rt 81’s westward path up and over the slight rise past today’s post office. (The trees in the inset hide almost all view of the house just beyond.) Also note the classic early century look of elm trees which were devastated by mid-century’s elm blight.

Playing key roles in the late-19th century economy of West Greenville (intersection of today’s Rt 81, Red Mill Road, and Ingalside Road), Vern Smith’s saw mill, as well as the Red Mill grist mill (about one-half mile south of the intersection), are open for business. The Red Mill has been memorialized in past photos, and remains remarkably similar in look (inset); the saw mill seems to have been razed before current memory can recall.

Grades 5, 6 and 7 of the Greenville Free Academy for 1914-1915 pose. Front row: Marjorie Meade, Elizabeth Griffin, Gladys Evans, Lillian Thompson, Walter Stevens, Girard Irving, William Irving, Louis Hoose; Second Row (three boys): George Hawley Conklin, Howard Irving, George Irving; Third Row: Ruth Ellsworth, Mary Vanderbilt, Irene Chesbro, Stella Griffin, Ben Spees, Clifford Schofield, Henry Francis; Back Row: Cora Winnie, Helen Conklin, Florence Evans, Mrs. Alveretta Townsend (teacher), Madeline Chesbro, Bessie Kniffin. (The GFA site is today the Library.)

Many a year has passed since sheep roamed Freehold’s roads. This picture was taken near the junction of today’s Rt 32 and Sunny Hill Rd. The photo looks southward toward the hamlet’s center, with the house visible under the tree’s bough belonging to Herman Story and, today, the Rosa family. In the inset, the most visible building is Tip Top Furniture, within yards of the Freehold’s four corners.

Perhaps, during a break between duties, these waitresses – Margie Smith (m. Parks), Doris Lamb (m. Ormsbee), “Sis” Abrams (m. Rasmussen), and “Skip” Covenhoven (m. Johannesen) – pose in their uniforms while working at Balsam Shade in the summer of 1944. Often starting by 6 A.M., waitresses not only served three meals to the summer guests but also cleaned bathrooms and boarders’ rooms, swept sidewalks, washed windows, scraped & washed & dried dishes and silverware, and did the host of small jobs that kept them occupied until after supper was served, usually until 8 p.m.

This eastward view of the Basic Creek Bridge looks toward Freehold’s four corners. This crossing of the creek along the Schoharie Turnpike witnessed many pre-automobile travelers-through. At least two bridge replacements have superseded the one shown of about 1920-ish vintage. The building on the right serves as an apartment building today; however, the building just beyond, and the building across the street, do not exist, the former burning in a spectacular 1960’s fire. A view through the bridge shows the porch of Parks’ Hotel, recently the Freehold Country Inn, and today the Freehold House. This landscape has most recently changed with the completion of the Freehold Beautification project.

Halloween pranks were much in fashion, even in 1921, as unidentified (or, unconfessed) fun-makers block the school’s entry way. Superseded by centralization in 1930, the Greenville Free Academy today serves as the Greenville Memorial Library.

A bucolic Greenville Center, at the intersection of today’s West Road and Country Rt 41, is revealed in this 1920-ish post card. Still recognizable is the Baptist Church on the left. On the right is the blacksmith shop and the corner store, also a residence for the Shaw family in the early-mid 20th century. The shop was razed and the store suffered a fire in the 1960s; the store was remodeled for the Mickelsen residence.

What appears to be a movie prop is the very real stagecoach used by James Evans to drive his passenger and mail route from Coxsackie to Greenville to Westerlo. The stage run ended about 1900 and this photo shows it a few years later having become a curiosity for the local youngsters (unidentified; if anyone can identify them, contact the Town Historian). The stagecoach actually did make an appearance in several movies and, in 1927, was featured in the Albany Times Union showcasing a fashionable Miss Albany.