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 construction of the central school in 1931 necessitated the moving of the Ford Rundell house (today owned by son David) across the street to its present location on North Street (Rt. 32). Moving was suspended one moving day with the house partially on Rt. 32. To allow the house to sit where it does today, Ford shot off an offending locust branch. The house sits one-quarter turn clockwise from its original orientation.

Memorial Day Parade, 1992 has Rick Magee cruising in front of the Library in his 1931 Ford sedan. Raising money for the proposed Town Park is the cause advertised; the 156 acre Vanderbilt Park became reality through the efforts of Park Committee fundraising and from an Iroquois Gas grant

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.

State mandates (yes, even back in the 1930’s!) merged a number of one-room schoolhouses into the newly formed Greenville Rural School District. Dated February 13, 1932, this photo shows mid-construction of the new school, occupying a site that was the site of the Ford Rundell house (see August 1993 calendar). The school district would add on to this structure in the 1950’s and the build a high school in the late 1960’s.

Greenville’s boarding houses typically stared when a farmer took in a few boarders for extra cash, and then gradually built on until the boarding house became main business. Three generation of the Griffin family have operated Balsam Shade: Burdett & Evangeline Griffin from 1935 until 1967; Ed and Mary Griffin from 1967-1983; and Len and Jyl (Griffin) DeGiovine from 1984-present.

Armed with a vision of and a need for an expanded library, Greenville Memorial Library Board Chair Leona Flack (shown above) initiated a 1991 building drive that finally culminated in this 1996 addition. The original building was built in 1906, replacing the former Greenville Academy building (1816-1905). A previous addition had been built on the same side in the early 1920s, and moved in the 1930s to Norton Hill.

One of the longest continuous personal businesses in Greenville, located 100 yards north of Greenville’s four corners, is the barbershop of Joe Flach (left) and son Philip (Flip). They have operated their barbershop, built in 1963, from the site formerly of Wessel’s Garage, and before that a blacksmith and wheel shop. Celebrating his 50th year in business, Joe started cutting hair in February, 1948 in a shop attached to the Tydol-Veedol service station (currently the post office site on Route 81 west) which was owned by his father-in-law Phil Schwebler. Joe had apprenticed under Bill Neidlinger who ran a barbershop in what is now Attorney Dale Doerner’s office on Route 81 east. Flip, at age 16, apprenticed under his father and was licensed in 1968. Joe’s father Karl operated a farm on the Alcove Road, about one-half mile from the junction with Hillcrest Road.

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.

Created in 1992 and officially opened in 1998, the 156 acre George V. Vanderbilt Park exists through the efforts of dozens of people. Especially instrumental in this early process were, left to right, Denise Mulligan, Debbie Magee and Ken Elsbree, through grant writing, planning, and volunteering of time.

In 1961, Al Bryant, who had operated his general store in South Westerlo since the 1940’s, built a new structure, Bryant’s Supermarket, one mile north of Greenville’s four corners on Rt. 32. Originally occupying the space now utilized by the video and eye care business shown in the inset, Bryant’s was enlarged, re-located, and enlarged again to its current site. This picture is tentatively place in the mid-1960s.

Completed in 1857, the Christ Episcopal Church was consecrated on October 22 of that year. The stone for the foundation came from the George Calhoun farm (recently owned by Mary Stevens) west of Greenville, and the stone for the building came from the Truman L Sanford farm east of the village (the Turon farm on Rt. 26), according to a church document. Nationally known architect Richard Upjohn drew up the plans. The earliest activities of the Episcopal Church refer to a marriage in 1805. The first building was consecrated in 1827 in East Greenville on Route 26 before the present building was erected on its current site. The Christ Episcopal Church rests a couple hundred yards north of Greenville’s four corners.

The beginning of Bryant’s Supermarket (noted in the 1999 calendar) is shown in this mid-1970s aerial shot, before the creation of the mall. In the lower left is Clapper’s Laundromat, and in the lower right is the Central Hudson building that still stands on the spot. A single vehicle drives south on Rt. 32; the towering parking lot night light has not yet been erected. Beyond the store, many of the residences visible still stand.

One-half mile north of the four corners stood this stately brick house of Lewis Sherrill, a prominent farmer/citizen of Greenville’s 19th century. Records indicate the house was built in the 1840s, with a number of additions to follow. Twentieth century owner George V. Vanderbilt is memorialized with the 155 acre town park named after him. On May 3, 1999, despite publicity and a fundraising effort, the new owner razed all the structures on the property, thus giving attention to the need for Greenville to attend to historical preservation. The inset shows the rubble pile.

This busy thoroughfare, North Street in Greenville, today’s Rt 32, is frozen in time with Addison Hickok driving his oxen to town, near today’s north driveway of the elementary school. Believed to be taken in the early 1900s, this picture shows not only the dirt roads and less speedy form of transportation, but also the houses on the east side of the road – the Vaughn house, the Powell house, and so on up the street. Addison lived in the Wickes house (located across the road from Bryant’s Country Square), the red house that was demolished in 1998.

The Presbyterian Church of Greenville, located one-tenth mile north of the four corners on Rt 32, is one of the dominant buildings of Greenville. Built on land donated by Augustine Prevost, this structure is the fourth one on the site, completed in 1860 after a 1859 fire destroyed the third structure. The church was first organized in 1790, with its first minister Beriah Hotchkin. Long-term pastors include Ezekiel VanDyck who served 35 years from 1893-1928, and Harold Page, the church’s most recent pastor from 1967-1999. Mainstays of the church for the 20th century’s second half have been Harry and Clarissa Ketchum, Clerks of the session, and Vi Reed, organist.

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 familiar sight in Greenville’s boarding house heyday, Jesse’s Elm Shade stood on the property near the intersection of Irving Road and Route 32, today the site of Greenwood Apartments. City guests would stay for a week, or weeks, at a farmhouse operated by John and Vida Lowe, which in turn was operated by Warren Jesse. The main house was torn down in the 1980s, and the guest room cabins were renovated into today’s apartments. The incline in the inset marks the spot of the main house. A nearby historic marker notes that this location was first settled by the Spees family.

A birdseye view from Stevens Hill shows a turn of the century Greenville hamlet. In the right foreground lies the cemetery. At the left is visible the steeple of the Presbyterian Church, the chapel (the bottom showing through the trees; today’s Boy Scout site), and the distinctive double pitch of the Episcopal Church. In the background are the hills of West Greenville and South Westerlo. Stevens Hill is the first steep hill on Rt 26, the property of which is still owned by the Stevens family. This photo was developed from a glass plate negative taken by M. P. Stevens.

Gloria Darrah, P. A., has served more than twenty years in Greenville’s history of medical care. After 14 years in East Berne, Gloria came to Greenville in 1984 with the goal of not only providing quality primary care but also of bringing an array of services under one roof. One of New York’s first Physician Assistants to own her own practice, she partnered, first, with Dr. Smith, and, later, with Dr. Morgenstern.

Faithful Tom and Jerry help Burdette Griffin plow one of his back fields at his newly acquired farm, Balsam Shade, located on State Route 32 on the Albany/Green County line, in 1935. Burdette, along with his wife Evangeline, added hotel units, a casino, a pool, and all the other amenities that so typically exemplified the mid-century boardinghouse/resort of the Greenville area. Burdette, the son of Burdette, Sr., and Rhue Griffin, died in 2008 at the age of 102, marking one of Greenville’s longest residencies. (This field is the site of the recent balloon festivals.)

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.)

Perhaps, during a break between duties, these waitresses – Margie Smith (m. Parks), Doris Lamb (m. Ormsbee), “Sis” Abrams (m. Rasmussen), and “Skip” Covenhoven (m. Johannesen) – pose in their uniforms while working at Balsam Shade in the summer of 1944. Often starting by 6 A.M., waitresses not only served three meals to the summer guests but also cleaned bathrooms and boarders’ rooms, swept sidewalks, washed windows, scraped & washed & dried dishes and silverware, and did the host of small jobs that kept them occupied until after supper was served, usually until 8 p.m.

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.