May 2012 Program

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 Greece Town Hall, 7:00 p.m.

The Corinthian

THE ARCHITECTURE OF JAMES JOHNSON with Mr. James Johnson LOCATION: St. Johns the Evangelist Church, 2400 W. Ridge Rd.

GREECE HISTORICAL SOCIETY and MUSEUM

Local architect, James Johnson is known for his many outstanding designs in the community, including Temple Sinai, Penfield Presbyterian Church, the mushroom house, the Liberty Pole and in the Town of Greece, Our Lady of Mercy Rectory and St. John the Evangelist Church. Using videos and images from past projects Mr. Johnson will discuss many of his local projects and the construction techniques used.
Public welcome; GHS members, free. A suggested donation of $5.00 from others. Reservations are not necessary. For more information call the Greece Historical Society 585-225-7221.

Volume 33, Issue 3

May-June 2012

In every issue:
Presidents Message Directors Message Museum Happenings Contact Us 2 3 5 10 Programs

Points of Interest:
1 2 5 8,9

Museum Exhibits Museum Education Historians File

June 2012
Annual Strawberry & Dessert Tasting Festival
Monday, June 18th, 2012 4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. 595 Long Pond Rd.
Museum open with special exhibit Free parking on the Museum lawn or at the Town Hall.

"President's Message" Your support is needed

Its been nearly a quarter century that our home has been at 595 Long Pond Rd. Like any home, a few repairs, maintenance and upgrades are needed now and then, and our home is no exception. The old farm house needs a new roof (Newcomb exhibit hall roof was replaced two years ago), some windows require repairs or replacement, the back exit stairway needs to be rebuilt, the front porch needs painting and recently we had an emergency plumbing issue in our second floor bathroom. Our dedicated volunteers can do some of the work, but unfortunately all these projects take money and as everyone knows, government grants are few and far between. So this year our Strawberry & Dessert Tasting Festival will play a major part in raising funds for our capital improvements projects. Join us on Monday, June 18th. For the small fee of $6.00 you will enjoy strawberry shortcake, and visit area vendors who will be offering samples of their dessert products. D-J Paul Anken will be our MC, Flying Brian and Miss Understood will keep things going with adult and childrens activities, singing couple Music & Memories will perform lively entertainment and a Karate demonstration will be featured during the evening. Door prizes will be given out throughout the evening and the popular Chinese raffle will return with chances to win fabulous prizes. Hots, burgers, etc. will also be available for purchase. We will also feature information displays from several local organizations, including the Greece Community & Senior Center and the Veterans Outreach Center. The museum will be open with a special Civil War exhibit from the Military History Society of Rochester. Last year nearly 500 of our guests enjoyed, what we considered, the Towns best neighborhood festival. Your support is crucial to maintain our standard of quality programs & events and continue to preserve our artifices and documents for future generations. We sincerely hope that you will join on June 18th and help us preserve the past for the future.

Museum News
Sunday museum hours are 1:30 - 4p.m. The office hours are Mondays 10 a.m. to Noon. 12th Annual Plant Sale Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 9 am until Noon
See more on page 3

GPAS Notable Garden Tour Saturday, June 16th 10am 4pm

See more on page 6

Strawberry/Dessert Festival Monday, June 18th 4-8pm NEW EXHIBITS OPENING in June Greece and the Civil War Celebrating 100 years of Girl Scouting Vi White, Museum Committee

Meet Our Newest Team Volunteer

Meet Maureen Whalen, our newest volunteer. You may already know her as librarian at the Rochester Public Library, Charlotte Branch. Most recently, Maureen has co-authored the 100th anniversary book recently published and available for sale, The Rochester Public Library 100 years of service. Pictured here, she is busily entering membership data into our new software called Pastperfect Museum Software. As you can see, her bubbly, cheerful personality shines through the tedious task. She will also help bring local history programs for adults and children to our own Greece Public Library.

Bill Sauers, President

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From the Desk of the Executive Director

We are currently seeking an Executive Director.

Save the Date!

12th Annual Plant Sale Saturday, May 19, 2012 - 9 am until Noon Featuring five local garden clubs

Members own hostas, dahlias, lilies and other perennials, as well as annuals and garden related items will be available for sale, rain or shine, on the grounds of the Greece Historical Museum. In event of severe weather, the sale will be held on Sunday, May 20th. We will have coffee & donuts available for purchase and our museum gift shop will be open.
STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL VOLUNTEERS NEEDED !

Mark your calendars for our annual strawberry & dessert tasting festival on Monday, June 18th. This festival, our main fundraiser for the year, takes the work of many volunteers for traffic control, ticket sales, set-up & take-down, entertainment, food purchasing, and dozens of other small jobs. Last year nearly 500 of our guests enjoyed, what we considered, the Towns best neighborhood festival. If you are willing to help us with this important fundraiser, please give us a call at 225-7221 or e-mail: greecehistoricalsociety@yahoo.com . Memorial Day Parade The colorful parade put on by the Town of Greece is held on Memorial Day and the best "seat in the house" is in front of your Greece Museum. Bring your chairs, park your cars in our lot, and if the weather is nice, you can enjoy a picnic lunch near the gardens out back. This is a new idea it's free and fun. Bring friends, too. Call Lorraine Beane for more details. 225-4041

Please support our current business members and affiliates

Bowlin's Remodeling Butler Insurance Canandaigua National Bank Flower City Printing Greece Chamber of Commerce Long Pond Auto Body Long Pond Family Restaurant North Ridge Glass Northwest Savings Bank Pettis Pools Sonitrol Security System 585-944-9234 585-392-8006 www.cnbank.com www.fcp.biz www.greecechamber.org www.longpondautobody.com www.longpondfamily.com 585-458-4041 www.northwestsavingsbank.com www.pettispools.com http://www.sonitrol.com

We want to thank them for their continuing support:

**** Can You Help Us? ****

We are in need of Docents for our Museum 1 or 2 Sunday afternoons a month. Call Kathie Firkins, 621-2869. 3

Museum Shop
Spring is coming! Join us on Saturday, May19th for our Plant Day. In addition to the beautiful plants offered by our local garden clubs, we will have our annual Spring Cleaning Sale on merchandise in our Museum Shop. We also have several new books in our Shop about hiking, local places of interest, and more. Buy your beautiful spring plants and check out the Museum Shop. All sales support the Greece Historical Society & Museum. Hope to see you there!

Officers & Board of Trustees

President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Executive Director Honorary Trustee Trustees: Bill Sauers Wendy Peeck Sandy Peck Jack Wallenhorst NEEDED Don Newcomb Sue Hodge Sandy Peck Wendy Peeck Bill Sauers Cyndie Shevlin Paula Smith Lee Strauss Jack Wallenhorst Viola White Roberta Young

Wendy Peeck, Museum Shop Coordinator

Museum & Museum Shop hours: Sunday 1:30-4:00 pm

A special thanks to Scott V. DeLucenay of John D. Foy Plumbing for a great job fixing a recent plumbing problem in our second floor bathroom
Committee Chairs: Grounds, Building Historian Office Membership Museum Museum Shop Newsletter Editor Planning Programs Publicity Registrar Tours, Education

Community Garage Sale

Saturday, July 28th 10am-4pm One mans junk is another mans treasure Join us for a fun community day. Grab a friend and rent a booth or come and search for treasures. If you would like a booth to sell your wares, contact Cyndie Shevlin (230-8218, call/text ) or email: ultint@yahoo.com.
Please note, I am not available until May 15th.

NEEDED Alan Mueller B. Wallenhorst Viola White Wendy Peeck Cyndie Shevlin NEEDED Bill Sauers Marge Zercie Betty Fetter Kathie Firkins

Please Remember
The Greece Historical Society in your tax and estate planning. We are a non-profit organization supported by your *gifts and endowments.

February 26th the history of the Rochester Public Library with Maureen Whalen

We sincerely appreciate your donations.

*Tax deductable per (Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code

For newsletter input, please contact: corintheditor@yahoo.com

Cyndie Shevlin, Editor

This newsletter is published bi-monthly by the editor for the Greece Historical Society and Museum.

Happenings at the Greece Museum

What Is It ?
If you guessed an egg weighing scale, you are right. The fastest winners are Richard Freemesser, who had a chicken farm on North Greece Rd; Rodger Burkart, and Jacqueline Hogestyn. Congratulations and thank you for participating! Mr. Freemesser gave us a Jiffy Way scale that is over 60 years old to display in our museum. Do you know what this is? Have you used one? Clue: for use when things are too hot to handle. Call 225-7221 or 227-5305 with your guess.

GHS Updates
Cams Pizza On March 15th Cams Pizza on Long Pond Rd. gave us a portion of their profits from the days sales which used our coupons. We are grateful to all who purchased nearly $500.00 in pizzas that day and helped raise $100.00 for the Society. New Refrigerator A special thanks to Phyllis & Paul Wadsworth of Hilton for donating a newer, larger and more efficient refrigerator for our kitchen. Also thank you John Plumber for driving to Hilton to retrieve it and Bill Peeck for removing the old one. This Past Seasons Sunday Programs Our special Sunday programs are now over and everyone who came enjoyed the variety of subjects covered. There was something for everyone: from Father Bradshaw of Mother of Sorrows, genealogy tips, stories of early local aviators to apple samples and an art show. We had our usual visitors along with a few new faces each week. This Past Seasons Monthly Programs Our Tuesday evening lectures have averaged 85 What year was guests, with one more scheduled for this season. this photo On Tuesday, May 8th we will feature local architect taken? Come to our May 8th proJames Johnson. This program will be inside one of gram at St. John Mr. Johnsons designs, St. John the Evangelist the Evangelist Church to find Church on W. Ridge Road.
the answer.

Education and Tours Committee

Autumn Lane School visited the Greece Museum in March, . and Longridge School visited in April. We also visited Longridge School to present a program telling the 2nd graders what they would be seeing during their museum tour. Kathy Firkins will be happy to arrange scout or school tours and you may call her at 621-2869 or email her at tile1316@frontiernet.net Kathie Firkins, Education Committee Chairperson and Tour Director
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SPOTLIGHT ON SOCIETY GARDENS!

For several years, the Greece Historical Society and Museum has welcomed the Greece Performing Arts Society (GPAS) Notable Garden Tour as it sets up its Garden Market in the big tent on our grounds. This has been a great partnership for both the Society and the GPAS. Every year, the our gardens have been admired from a distance by Garden Market shoppers. This year those gardens will be a stop on the Tour! Four garden clubs, including Lakeview Garden Club, Shorewood Garden Club, Thyme in the Garden and Woodside Garden Club each have taken on the responsibility of planting and caring for an area on the Museum grounds. The White family has also developed a garden sitting area in the rear. As the tour visitors roam our property, each club will have members stationed at its particular garden to discuss their garden plans and to answer questions about their garden and their club. We are very excited about this chance to welcome the larger community onto the grounds of the Museum, and are happy to host the Garden Clubs and the Tour. For the first time, the Museum and Gift shop will be available to tour guests all day allowing for many people in our community to experience who we are and why we exist.

The 16th Annual GPAS Notable Garden TourNeighbors and Neighborhoods will be rain or shine on Saturday, June 16 from 10 am to 4 pm. For tickets and more information, call the GPAS Hotline at (585) 234-5636. ***************************************************************************************
Police Sgt Chris Bittners program about the History of the Greece Police Department with an extensive display of artifacts and photographs.

Amy Machamer of Hurd's Orchards with an original Vick's Seed Company oil painting. On March 18th Amy & Sue Machamer gave a wonderful talk on the history of apple & fruit farming and the six generations of Hurd's. Everyone enjoyed sample pies and jams.

Jan Hewitt Towsley of the Weavers Guild of Rochester explaining weaving techniques to Sandy Peck and Ruth Curchoe on Sunday March 25th.

March 4th Orleans County Country Quilt Barn Project with Lora Partyka

FROM THE HISTORIAN'S FILE

" Treasures from the Past "

More than a few years ago our society was given a chair that had once been used by the Howe family in what was their home for twenty some years. After a move from Latta and Long Pond Road, it is the older section of our museum complex. For a time the chair was used in various places in the facility but gradually the fabric (not the original) wore through. The arms lost their finish and the frame became weak. It was then relegated to the storage loft. Last year we decided it needed to be brought back to life and again returned to the main floor of the old house. After some research we found an old local furniture store folder and a catalog of the late 1920 period with several examples of a similar style chair being offered. A furniture rebuilding and upholstering company in Bloomfield (who does work for the Sonnenberg Mansion in Canandaigua) took on the job, and helped us pick out the proper fabrics. The result is a now sturdy chair with the appropriate covering for a chair style of eighty years ago. It is the only piece of furniture we have that was actually used in the house through its many owners. Take a look at it in living color when you next visit the museum. This chair for $12.75 is almost identical to ours. An inflation calculator figures the $12.75 cost in1929 would be $160.76 in 2010 money.

If you have any information on our photos, call Alan at 663-1706.

Photos, data supplied by Alan Mueller, Historian's Office.

Found Treasures
A few weeks ago a call came in from the son of a former town politician. He had retrieved a fairly large group of photo albums from a man's estate that was being dispersed. Might he bring them over as a possible donation? We have many, many local political photos, but there might possibly be some in this collection of interest. He arrived carrying a rather large blue suitcase from the 1950s. Popping the sturdy latches revealed six albums, each featuring a former Town Supervisor from Gordon Howe to Don Riley. An additional album was from 1995 of a special recognition dinner for those former officials. A Greece Post article from that year covering the special dinner also had several paragraphs about a Mr. Holden Miller as follows: Holden Miller? Miller was never elected to public office in Greece, but his name was on the lips of almost every presenter and honoree at Monday's dinner. He has been collecting photographs of and keepsakes from all of Greece's former supervisors for the past 40 years. His picture books and collages were displayed for interested guests. "It's the first time my collection has ever been seen in public", Miller said. Miller plans to someday donate his collection to the Greece Historical Society. The rather worn suitcase contained most of that collection. The Town Historian's Office accepted the albums and will eventually put the collection in proper acid free folders and boxes. Unfortunately, the albums are from the period of self adhering pages. Who doesn't have such an album containing family photos? They can create a nightmare for preservation if the materials aren't removed before discoloration and sometimes permanent adhesion occurs. Holden Miller would be pleased his collection will be preserved and given proper care.
1

6 2

1. October 1963 2. New Town Board 1933 3. May Dance1956 4. Radio Press Conference 1967 5. Halloween 1958 6. First Meeting 1958

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Photos, data supplied by Alan Mueller, Greece Historian's Office.

Greece Historical Society Greece Museum 595 Long Pond Road P.O. Box 16249 Rochester NY 14616-0249

Non-Profit Org. U.S. POSTAGE PAID Rochester NY Permit #1188

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Your donations and memberships help keep our Museum open. Thank you for your support.
CONTACT US GHS Office: Telephone: 585-225-7221 Email: greecehistoricalsociety@yahoo.com Website: www.greecehistoricalsociety.net Historians Office: greece.historian@frontiernet.net Corinthian Editor: corintheditor@yahoo.com

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Greece Historical Society & Museum

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(Please include a self addressed stamped envelope to receive a membership card or bring completed form to membership meeting)

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