The Vedder Research Library

Greenville Free Academy, pre-1906

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.”

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.

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.

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 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.