Local History

Above: Longshot of RJHS exhibit. All photos courtesy of the Roeliff Jansen Historical Society.

Opened on Saturday, July 12, and on display until Sunday, October 26, the Roeliff Jansen Historical Society is currently holding their summer exhibition, titled Sites to Celebrate: Local History Revisited. Each weekend (Saturday and Sunday) from 2pm to 4pm, visitors will be welcome to visit and explore the current displays at the rescued, restored, and repurposed Methodist Church located at 8 Miles Road in Copake Falls, NY. Here, the RJHS is located, operating its historical society and museum.

Having worked in collaboration with community partners, including the Copake Historic Preservation Committee, the RJHS Board of Directors, Historic Hillsdale, and the Copake Grange, the RJHS has arranged this exhibit directly in tandem with various organizations and individuals who have contributed items to the effort. 

Indeed, the society’s president Lesley Doyel and the RJHS team explain that “the exhibition reflects a shared commitment to protecting and preserving our local heritage,” while highlighting how the spotlighted sites “have and continue to play a vital role in our community through restoration and repurposing.”

This is all the more important through the lens of historian and preservationist William Murtagh, whose ideology surrounding the meaning and goals of preservation inspired this very exhibit. Murtagh, as he explains in Keeping Time: The History and Theory of Preservation in America (1988), describes preservation as not only intentional, but an act “that strengthens our future by honoring our past,” Lesley and the RJHS team state.

Through their programs and exhibitions, the RJHS aims to follow Murtagh’s sentiment that “[a]t its best, preservation engages the past in a conversation with the present over a shared concern for the future.” 

All about the exhibit

With Sites to Celebrate: Local History Revisited, the RJHS seeks to capture this very perspective in a collection of preserved objects and visuals on display, ranging from a six-foot-long ice saw and 30-pound block of coal to a red glass railroad lantern and a child’s handmade birdhouse.

Alongside the exhibit’s items and their descriptive text panels, there will also be an orientation video on display introducing each of the presented sites and their historical context, along with other multimedia. The orientation will also be made available on the RJHS website. 

The exhibited items truly bring local history to life, representing over a dozen historic sites through original documents and vintage photographs, as well as recently unearthed tools and artifacts. Visitors to the exhibit can expect all sorts of compelling features, including merchandise from Dimmick’s Hillsdale Store, train timetables from the Craryville Depot, and learning materials from the Copake Little School.

The display also brings visitors into the world of historical figures and events in the region, from progressive dairy farmer Frank Sherman and the legacy of his former Copake homestead to the once-lawless hamlet of Boston Corner, which was the backdrop to Sullivan and Morrissey’s notorious 1853 bare-knuckle prize fight. Boston Corner was eventually transferred from Massachusetts to New York in 1855, becoming the location of three railroad lines and a major Borden’s dairy facility. 

Furthermore, the famed Bash Bish Inn’s early color photographs, postcards, and memorabilia will be exhibited, reflecting the inn’s management by renowned restaurateur Louis Mouquin and the elite, international clientele the inn attracted. 

The significance of local history on display

The current RJHS exhibition indicates and seeks to interact with a renewed, growing fascination with the region’s past. “The town’s 2024 Bicentennial Celebrations increased broad community interest and engagement with local history. Since then, individual owners of historic properties have taken the initiative to protect and raise awareness about their lesser-known sites,” explains Copake Historic Preservation Committee chair Catherine Mikic. 

“These include vestiges of the 1923 icehouse operated by the Copake Lake Pure Water & Ice Company,” Catherine explains, “and the c.1720 Mill Success, a Livingston Manor-era grist mill on Taghkanic Creek. Each of these remarkable community-led initiatives and others across the Roe Jan area are the subject of the Sites to Celebrate exhibition.”

As RJHS board member and life-long resident of Copake Falls, NY, Jane Peck states, Sites to Celebrate: Local History Revisited certainly stays true to its name. Even if you’ve lived in this area for your whole life, or consider yourself familiar with the region, you still have the opportunity to learn and explore more through this unique showcase.

Jane describes, “Though I’ve lived here all my life, working on this exhibit has brought places I never knew about to my attention. Two of these are the former site of the huge, 50,000-ton icehouse at Copake Lake, and the Sweet Sherman Homestead on Center Hill Road.”

Opportunities to see the sites in-person

In addition to the exhibition itself at the RJHS headquarters, folks are encouraged to register for special tours of the historic sites represented in and featured by the displays. These site visits, which will be both outdoor and indoor and held on select Sunday afternoons, will be hosted through October free of charge—but registration is required.

Site visits will encompass an assortment of interesting historic landmarks in the region, including the former Bash Bish Inn, the property where the Copake Pure Water & Ice Co. Icehouse stood, the Copake Little School, the Craryville Depot Complex, the Copake Iron Works Historic District, Boston Corner, Hillsdale’s historic town center, Gallatin Community Church, and more. 

Indeed, anyone interested in diving deeper into the history of the local region is sure to be enthralled by the Roeliff Jansen Historical Society’s display and programming this year.

To learn more about Sites to Celebrate: Local History Revisited and how to register for special site visits, please click here. The Roeliff Jansen Historical Society is located at 8 Miles Road in Copake Falls, NY, and the exhibition will be on display through Sunday, October 26. Viewings will be held on Saturdays and Sundays from 2pm to 4pm. To get in contact, please call (518) 329-0652 or email roeIiffjansenhs@gmail.com.

Below: Items from Hillsdale General Store, Icehouse & Craryville Depot items, East Wall of RJHS exhibit.