It’s interesting to read the minutes of the early meetings of the Rochester Historical Society. In those days, the meetings were held at the homes of the members and donated items were also by necessity stored in their homes. This could lead to storage issues as one member found when she agreed to temporarily store some mannequins from the closing Star Store at her home. From the minutes, it sounds as though they were on their way to becoming family members until her husband finally dismantled (or maybe it’s dismembered) them so they would fit in their attic.
As you can imagine, the members were constantly looking for a suitable building to become their museum. Many possibilities are mentioned in the minutes, but none pan out until in 2003, the East Rochester Congregational Church was offered to the Society. With a dwindling congregation, they could no longer sustain the building so for $1.00, the building became the Rochester Historical Museum.
The Rochester Historical Society has always felt a responsibility to maintain the upstairs as it was left to us, but it has also become our museum and a place where we can set up exhibits and display items of historical interest. In the intervening years, one of our members, Betty Beaulieu, did the hard work of getting the building put on the Registry of Historic Buildings.
Old buildings are hard to maintain, and it won’t be long before ours will need a new paint job, but we are able to keep the doors open and the lights on thanks to all our members and everyone who has helped us out this year in many different ways. Membership dues, yard sale donations and purchases, donations left after programs, purchases of our items for sale in the gift shop, generous donations that appear in our mailbox and grants from the Rochester Cultural Council all help us continue with our mission to preserve and share Rochester history.
This year has been another busy one of well attended meetings with subjects that included bees, the history of the Balzarini family at Mary’s Pond, an inside look at Artisan Bakeshop with some delicious macrons, music with Tom and Sheila Perry followed by ice cream, and the history of surveying and maps with Charlie Rowley. In addition, there was the Thankful Supper, another potluck and a wonderful Holiday Organ Sing. I want to take a minute to thank all those who generously donated to our organ fund.
Around these events we also had a yard sale, an open house for our updated exhibit, a cemetery tour of the cemetery in the center of town and a Mini- Fair with a Historic flair. This went so well; we’re planning a bigger, better historic fair for 2024.
I want to thank The Wanderer for providing us with a way to get the news out about our activities. As always, the Museum is open by appointment. Contact info is on the library website. We hope to see you at our first meeting of 2024. It will be April 17 at 7:00 pm.
By Connie Eshbach