The Vedder Research Library

The Potter Hollow one-room schoolhouse served its community from 1853-1954, and is now the most authentic one room school house still extant in the Greenville Central School District. In an effort to preserve this building for a “perfect setting for local history presentations by students and community members,” many people worked together – Potter Hollow community members, the Greenville School Board and Administration, the NYS Historic Preservation Bureau, and, notably, pictured here, Richard Ferriolo who has striven to see this project to its fruition. The school house is being considered for the National Historic Register.

The 1917 haying season is underway on the George Conklin farm on Newry Rd—about a quarter mile south of its intersection in Newry with CR 38 (the road to Shepard’s Resort). The photo views the south field (east side of the road) and looks downhill, or south. A scattered row of elm trees line the road that intersects with Irving Rd before meeting CR 26. Visible through the tree row is the next farm, on the west side of the road. The inset, looking down and south from the house’s driveway, shows nature reclaiming unused fields.

Jack and Clara Welter had bought a farmhouse/boarding house from her parents in 1945 on CR 26 near the junction of Newry Road, making improvements (third story, motel unit, casino, lake) that typified the nearly 30 resorts that hosted thousands of guests to the Greenville area in the early-mid-1960s. The main house became Santa’s Pizzeria, which burned in an all-consuming fire in March 1999. Today, only the motel unit survives, bearing the faintest of testimony to the boarding house heyday in Greenville. The photo is of 1950s vintage; the inset shows the main house before the third story was added.

A rare 1950s aerial gives testimony to the nature of the typical farm in agricultural Greenville, with farm house, a larger barn, and outbuildings. For almost thirty years, current owners Dave and Marybeth Tschinkel and family have sold round and square hay bales, harvested wood, and raised Pygmy goats on their Plattekill Road farm, about a quarter mile off SR 32. Previously, the Ansbacher family had operated a dairy farm here from the 1930s until the 1980s; before that, the Carlsons resided here, with Mr. Carlson operating a barbershop in his home, with reports of the barber’s chair ring still pressed on the hardwood floor. The property had been part of a larger tract that stretched to the Basic Creek and included what is today J.P. North’s. Dave and Marybeth first purchased a 17 acre farm and have enlarged the farm to 100 acres since their 1988 purchase. One inset shows James, Khrystyne, Marybeth, and Dave in front of the farm house; the other shows the barn that the Tschinkels have saved from ruin.

Emmalissa McClusky O’Hara and Josephine O’Hara pose about 1930 in front of the 1870 O’Hara Homestead, a stone’s throw west of the center of O’Hara’s Corners, the junction of O’Hara Road and Shipley Road. Born in Ballandary, Ireland, Peter O’Hara escaped English harassment and possible death to start a new life in the United States about 1800. He and wife Lucretia Darbee would bear most of their fifteen children at the original homestead (burned in 1929), a couple hundred yards west of the house shown. Great-great-grandsons John and Peter O’Hara (inset) still maintain the O’Hara presence today—Peter living in the house shown, John spending summers next door.

Originally known as Locust Manor, this former boarding house entertained guests from New York City for many years. Currently resided by Beth (Blenis) Hulbert, the house is located at the Surprise intersection of SR 81 and Willowbrook Rd, greeting travelers as they head westward from Coxsackie on their way to Surprise, Murder Bridge Hill, Horton’s Corners (intersection with Highland Rd), Greenville, and points westward. Built approximately 1840, the home has been in the Boyd/Blenis family for over 100 years. The house was owned previously by Luman and Edna Boyd, followed by their son Howard. With family help in 2007, Barry, Blaine, and Gina restored and updated the interior and exterior, adding the two car garage in keeping with the architecture of the house. Gracing the front lawn are uncle Dennis R. Blenis, father Barry G. Blenis, Beth A. Hulbert, brother Blaine R. Blenis, sister-in-law Gina (Gundersen) Blenis, and cousin Daniel L. Blenis. The GLHG applauds the renovation/restoration of properties that re-invigorate the character of the town. The inset shows a 1990 photo.

Brian and Robin Johnson stand before their home in Newry, at the intersection of CR 38 and Newry Road. In 1997 they purchased this former home of Daniel S. Miller (1762-1839) and Betsy (Jones) Miller (1771-1855), who moved here from East Hampton, NY around 1801, and established a tannery, harness and shoe-making enterprise. Daniel S. Miller was elected as a Commissioner of Highways at Greenville’s first Town Meeting held on April 5, 1803. In 1806 he was an Incorporator of the Greenfield Turnpike, which ran from his home to Rensselaerville. He was among the first Trustees of Greenville Academy chartered in 1816. He operated his businesses for many years, and was a central figure here at Newry. Daniel S. Miller was considered to be a prominent New York merchant, as was his son, Daniel Stratton Miller (1806-1878), who moved to NYC. Daniel and Betsy Miller had four sons and five daughters, and their home remained in the family for over one hundred years. Robin and Brian have raised their two daughters, Allison and Casey, here, and love the land and the sense of history that surround them. They have restored the foundation, floors, fireplaces and fixtures; have replaced the boiler, roof and gutters; and remain committed to the ongoing efforts of their stewardship. The GLHG continues to applaud home owners and community members who restore, renovate, or upgrade historic structures, improving the ambiance of the community, even those set on our back roads. One inset shows an early stage of renovation; a second shows the historic marker beside the house.

The inventiveness of a Greenville area resident, Frank Vedder, endures almost invisibly on a hundred different sites in the Greenville area. Looking for a vertical siding alternative in the 1970s, Vedder took a one-side finished, 7.25 x .75 board, cut a .375 tongue hanging on the rough side and a 1.25 inch tongue hanging on the smooth, planed side. When butted together, the result was a flush fit on the smooth side and a .875 innie-groove on the rough side. This contrasted with the common board-and-batten in which two boards are placed on a wall, with a gap between, to be covered usually by a 3-4 inch board, leaving an outie projection. The competition to the Vedder siding was T-111, a 4’ x 8’ panel with thin lengthwise grooves every eight inches. Vedder siding was first milled at GNH, its production ending when the sawmill closed in the 1970s.  Currently, a national company utilizes the same pattern, calling it Rustic Channel. Any credit to Frank Vedder was lost. One photo shows the pattern on the Howley house in Freehold. A second photo shows the Flach barn complex in Newry, utilizing the Vedder siding, while a third shows the siding pattern in a close-up of a Flach barn, The other two photos show a cut-out of the smooth side and of the rough cut, innie side.

Pine Lake Manor celebrates its centennial as a resort in 2024. Nicholas and Lydia Schirmer bought a farm house located on the northeast corner of today’s Newry Road and County Route 26. They started the business by taking in the overflow guests from Twelve Maples, the boarding house across the street (site of today’s office). Willow Rest Farm, as the Schirmers named their new business, thrived as they expanded and raised six children. Son Reinhold (Reiny) Schermer (spelling change) married Josephine (Jo) Gawel in 1942, bought the business in 1948 and they started their first year as the renamed Pine Lake Manor in 1949. Reiny and Jo’s daughter Joanne married Tom Baumann in 1963 and they entered the business in 1972.  Their children (Amy, Kevin and Jacquie and their families) are also actively involved in running the business. The photo shows the centennial family: 

courtesy Pine Lake Manor