The Vedder Research Library

Greenville Free Academy, pre-1906

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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).