through the early 1950s, was home Essex County Historical Society turns 50 at the to the Elizabethtown Central School. Six months after the Essex County Historical Society was formed, the new organization bought the two- story brick building and began reno- Adirondack History vations for its new life as a museum. Today the Adirondack History Center has seven exhibit rooms on the first and second floor and a Center Museum research library as well as an exhibi- tion hall in the huge basement room that was originally the school’s gym- By Lee Manchester, Lake Placid News, March 12, 2004 nasium. The History Center’s pro- gram area is not restricted to the ELIZABETHTOWN — The Essex ebration. building’s interior, however; three County Historical Society will be The biggest memorial of the outdoor areas have long been used to marking the 50th anniversary of its Historical Society’s 50th anniver- describe aspects of natural and cul- founding later this month. sary, however, is the Adirondack tural development in the “The plan is to celebrate a whole History Center itself, for which the Adirondacks, and a fourth outdoor series of events over the next 5 society was founded. Since 1955, the display will open this year. years,” said Adirondack History Adirondack History Center has As a small museum, the Center Museum Director Margaret developed into an extraordinary Adirondack History Center is first- Gibbs. small museum, giving rate. The restored artifacts on display The first such commemoration Adirondackers and tourists alike a are attractive in themselves, and they will be held next Friday, March 19, rich taste of what life was like in are attractively presented as well. with a special program at the muse- bygone days in Essex County. Interpretive plaques placed through- um. Historical Society members out the museum make it easy for have engaged in a little detective The school of history unescorted visitors to clearly and work, trying to find as many of the The Adirondack History Center is fully understand the stories being group’s 40 founding members to housed in a building that, from 1915 told by the artifacts. attend the 50th anniversary gather- ing. Only two survivors have been located, however: Katherine Cross, of Essex, and Mark Hanna, of Willsboro. Both have been invited to next week’s activities. Another commemoration of the Essex County Historical Society’s 50th anniversary is currently making its way around the county. The moveable exhibition was researched by librarian Suzy Doolittle and designed by Elaine McGoldrick, both members of the History Center staff. The exhibition tells the stories of all 18 townships in Essex County. It is currently on display at the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center in Wilmington, but will move to Schroon Lake next month as part of The Adirondack History Center Museum makes its home Schroon township’s bicentennial cel- in the former Elizabethtown Central School building. The Adirondack Room celebrates the High Peaks experience with its lean-to, vintage guideboats, snowshoes and pack baskets. When you step through the doors mining operations that drove the set- visitors is Cobble Hill Bill, the on the side of the building and climb tlement of Essex County in the early stuffed remains of a small bear that the stairs to the front desk, here’s 1800s, from North Elba and was kept as a pet at Elizabethtown’s what you will find inside the Newcomb to Moriah and Au Sable Windsor Hotel. After Bill was killed Adirondack History Center: Forks. during an escape attempt, his heart- • On the main floor, one gallery • On the other side of the main broken owner had him stuffed. Bill has been set aside as an ORIENTA- floor are the AGRICULTURE ROOM eventually found his way to the TION ROOM, containing a large and the ADIRONDACK ROOM, the museum, where kids have petted his relief map of Essex County. Lights latter being probably the most popu- snout so much over the years that all have been placed where important lar gallery in the museum with the hair there has been worn off. sites can be found on the map; those young guests, Director Gibbs said. • Upstairs, in addition to the lights are illuminated when buttons The centerpiece of the Adirondack BREWSTER LIBRARY for historical are pressed on an array at the base of Room is an authentic lean-to, built in research, are three more exhibition the map. “Kids love pressing those place especially for the museum, galleries. The DOLL ROOM is dedi- buttons,” Gibbs said. complete with typical Adirondack cated to the Ladd Collection of his- • Across the hall is the ROSEN- camping gear. Displayed alongside toric American and Asian dolls, BERG GALLERY, a room set aside the log shelter are a beautifully gathered by Wadhams summer resi- for special exhibits. Two years ago, restored wooden canoe and dent Frances Virginia Stevens Ladd this gallery played host to Amy Adirondack guideboat. On the walls during her travels around the world Godine’s exhibition, “Dreaming of are two tributes to regional pioneers, in the first half of the 20th century. Timbuctoo,” about the attempt to one to surveyor Verplanck Colvin, • The full name of the COMMUNI- establish a free African-American the other to famous backwoods TY ROOM, across the hall from the colony in North Elba in the mid-19th guides like John Cheney, Old Doll Room, is “Ties that Bind: century. Last year’s special exhibit Mountain Phelps and Bill Nye. Making Adirondack Communities.” was “Forgotten Household Arts.” But the artifact in the Adirondack Displays focus on five of Essex This year, the Rosenberg Gallery Room that evidently draws the most County’s community-building insti- exhibition will focus on the iron- attention from the museum’s young tutions: business, churches, schools, newspapers and civic organizations. attention during your next visit. vaged for the construction of the Prominent among the displays are a • An authentic COLONIAL GAR- Adirondack History Center’s very working printing press, several old- DEN was carved out of the lawn own fire tower. Yes, you can climb time school desks, and the 1920s-era behind the museum in 1955 and it; entry is from the former emer- stage curtain from the Lewis Grange 1956. An adaptation of the Hampton gency exit at the end of the second Hall, covered with advertisements Court garden of England’s King floor hallway. for local businesses. Henry VIII, it has been maintained • New this year will be an outdoor One wall in the Community Room for the last 39 years by the Essex exhibit on WATER POWER, which contains a timeline showing mile- County Adirondack Garden Club. drove the lumber mills and other stones in the life of the building in • Behind the Colonial Garden, a early industry of Essex County’s which the museum is housed, start- small NATURE TRAIL leads visitors riverside hamlets. Central to the ing with its opening as a school in through the woods between the exhibit will be the huge, iron water 1915. Adirondack History Center and the turbines salvaged from an old mill in “We have quite a few people who adjacent Hand House, the restored Lewis, which will grace the museum come through and view the building home of a renowned 19th century lawn like large industrial sculptures. itself as an artifact,” Gibbs said, state Supreme Court justice. “especially those who attended • Standing to the side of the old Living history school here.” Elizabethtown School is a restored The Adirondack History Center • Next door to the Community ADIRONDACK FIRE TOWER. A offers special programs each year, in Room is the COUNTY ATTIC, con- majority of the 69 towers erected on addition to its exhibits. One of the taining a glassed-in hodge-podge of Adirondack and Catskill mountain- highlights of last summer’s program typical household artifacts from the tops in the early 20th century have was a weekly “living history” per- 19th and early 20th centuries. been removed because of state formance. • Going back down two flights of wilderness policy. Parts of the tow- This summer a new living-history stairs, Adirondack History Center ers from West and Kempshall moun- show will be offered in July and visitors will find themselves in the tains, in Hamilton County, were sal- August. The seven performances expansive basement of the old school building. The main, lower portion of the basement is dedicated to the museum’s TRANSPORTA- TION CENTER. Displayed in the high-ceilinged room that once was the school gymnasium are several excellent restorations of 19th centu- ry vehicles, including a fire-pump wagon and an 1887 Concord stage- coach. In a small sub-gallery at the far end of the gym is an exhibit on the 18th century French and English forts at Crown Point. In the mezza- nine overlooking the Transportation Center, where a few old bleachers have been left in place, a sound and light show played across a 35-foot map of Lake Champlain tells the sto- ries of the early conflicts that deter- mined the future of Essex County. IF THE WEATHER is good, sever- al outdoor interpretive areas at the Adirondack History Center deserve The stage curtain from the old Grange hall in Lewis, covered with advertisements for local businesses, hangs across one wall of the Community Room. will be staged on Fridays starting at kids acted out a schoolroom scene, be on the town of Keene. 11 a.m. telling jokes and pulling pigtails. “The Keene Central School drama “The performance last year started • In the County’s Attic, an actor program will start developing it,” in the garden,” Gibbs said, “and made up as a display mannequin Gibbs said, “and some students will worked its way all through the muse- came to life.