The Vedder Research Library

Owner Miss Aileen Hesel and partner Allen Totzeck proudly pose in front of the Ellis-Hesel house. Built in 1884 by Will Craw, this house is known for the previous occupants – Scott & Elgirtha Ellis, and, later, son Phil. (Scott Ellis oversaw the Greenville Central School education community from its centralization in the 1930s until his retirement in 1964; Phil was Greenville Local editor from 1963 until 1997.) Aileen bought the house in 1999 and, with the help of her mother Dorothy (advisor, colors & details & fabric person) and father Larry (locksmith, plasterer, cabinet & window person, crown molding maker), re-established this house—two houses down from the Greenville Arms on South Street—as an attractive mainstay. Greenville, indeed, appreciates those efforts that update and revitalize our community.

A March 29, 1932 spring storm intrudes on South Street, Greenville. The photographer is standing near the four corners, looking southward. The second structure on the right still stands, today’s Ciani & Morris building, while the first building on the right once housed telephone operators, and has since been razed. Left and right rows of residences nestle behind the maple trees that once lined the street. If the picture had been taken four years earlier, the Greenville Hotel (Glen Royal) front would have been visible on the right edge of the photo but the old hotel was demolished to make way for the Pioneer Insurance building.

After a fire in 1873, a new Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church was erected, shown here on the west side of Rt 32 near the junction with Hill Street. The first Methodist Church started in West Greenville in 1825 before it was moved in 1856 to a spot on the east side of Rt 32, just yards north of the building shown. In 1867, a parsonage was built, nearly opposite this structure, and was used as such until the late 20th century. With dwindling attendance mid-late century, this church merged with the Norton Hill church in 1973, the combination becoming the United Methodist Church of Greenville and Norton Hill.

William S. Vanderbilt built this Victorian residence on South Street, Greenville for his family residence in 1889. In 1952, Pierce and Ruth Stevens purchased the property, including house and carriage house, and began the transition to a 20-bedroom boarding house—Greenville Arms—a perfect place to raise four daughters while welcoming guests. As vacationing trends changed, Greenville Arms became a destination for travelers who enjoyed country inns. In 1980, daughters Laura and Barbara Stevens became the innkeepers and, soon after, they founded the Hudson River Valley Painting Workshops to draw artists to Greene County. The workshops thrived and, when Tish and Eliot Dalton purchased the inn in 1989, they expanded the art program. In 2004, ownership passed to Kim and Mark LaPolla, who not only maintained the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops but also enhanced their year-round calendar by instituting Fiber Arts Workshops. A gift shop features their homemade fine chocolates. Now known as the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn, this South Street landmark continues to serve as a symbol of Greenville hospitality and of the boarding house history.

Methodist Church, Greenville, on South Street

Some of Greenville’s most dramatic snow drifts have plagued Carelas’s Hill, about a half-mile south of Greenville on SR 32. Carol Adriance poses inside one of the carved out corners during the 1957 winter. An innocent 2015 springtime shot of the same area is shown in the inset. Carelas’s Hill, also known as Fish Hill or Budd Hill, overlooks Lake Barbara, still known to many as Carelas’s Lake.

A snowbank edged South Street (Rt 32) leads northward toward the Hill Street intersection before depositing travelers into Greenville’s four corners. Taken from the road in front of Millard Felter’s mid-1950s house, this photo frames, on the left, the Reinhardt property and the Methodist Church (Upstream Reality, 2015), and, on the right, the houses bordering Hill Street. Cathedral-like elm trees arch upward, perhaps the last twenty years of their prominence in Greenville’s landscape. The inset shows a Spring 2015 angle.

The Schubert Choral Club poses in April, 1933 in the Asbury Methodist Church, South Street, Greenville. This group, according to Ella Tryon Powell notes, gave concerts for about ten years before the Second World War. Back row: Nicholas Rose, Harold Worth, Mr. Koehler, Walter Birkett, Peter Dumary, Curtis Dumary, Merle Powell, Eugene Keyser, Rhodell Stanton, Charles Stranahan; Middle: Mr. Rennis, Margaret Beylegaard, Ella Tryon, Leona Ingalls, Elgirtha Ellis, Danetta Lennon, Lucy Gardner, Ruby Rundell, Helen Woodruff, Phoebe Rundell, Hester Story, Lela Lennon, Mrs. Arloff, Hilda Story, Madeline Rundell, Margaret Ingalls, Anna Wickham, Margaret Matthews, Eleanor Ingalls, Hattie Wickes, Ruth Tryon, Bertha Powell, Hawley Conklin; Front: Fred Bleezarde, Howard Spaulding, Gladys, Beylegaard, Ruth Slater, Ethel Ray, Rolland Heermance (director), Esther DeHeus, Eva Bott, Emily Duntz, Paul Augstein, Phillip Lockwood; Missing: George Abrams, Mrs. Birkett.