The Vedder Research Library

Greenville Free Academy, pre-1906

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.)

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.