Gilbertsville History Exhibit: A Remembrance of Things Past
By TERESA WINCHESTER
GILBERTSVILLE
Time spent browsing is all it costs to peruse the local history exhibit mounted by lifelong Gilbertsville resident Larry Smith in an unoccupied commercial space in the Gilbert Block, itself of historical significance, having been constructed in neo-Tudor style in 1894.
The exhibit will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 24 and Saturday, May 31. It will also be open on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26 from 8-11 a.m.
The storefront windows feature framed photographs and drawings as well as a baseball uniform worn by players of Gilbertsville’s American Legion team, which Smith played on in the mid- to late-1950s.
“I was pitching when I got hit in the head with a line drive in Laurens. I had a concussion and spent a week in the hospital. I never played again,” Smith recalled.
In the left window, a photo of the Stag’s Head Inn, once located at the corner of Marion Avenue and Cliff Street, is a reminder of frequent structure fires of that era. After being destroyed by fire in 1895, the inn was not rebuilt. Overlook Park now occupies this site. Also in the window display is a framed news clipping of J. Merton Moore, who, in the first half of the 19th century, was owner of a clothing store at the same site as the exhibit. Moore also ran a funeral parlor in the basement of the store space, so any rumors of bodies in the basement are not village myth, but well-founded. Hanging in the same window is a Sportsters Car Club shirt. In 1961, Smith was one of the club’s founding members.
“We mainly had cars from the late 1950s—Fords, Chevys, Mercurys—and we met at our clubhouse up on Wilbur Road. We called it the Sugar Shack,” Smith said.
In the right-hand window are original landscape design drawings of Overlook Park, produced by Boston landscape designer Warren Manning between 1902 and 1907. Also on view is a floorplan of the Presbyterian Church.
Inside, long shelf tops display a considerable collection of vintage paraphernalia. Various printed programs indicate an active community life: Gilbertsville Central School’s annual Alumni Association banquet (1940), a Christmas program (1941) featuring a pantomime, a trumpet trio and a toy band, a spring musical offered by the school’s music department as a benefit for band uniforms, and the proceedings of the 17th annual convention of the Otsego County Fireman’s Association (1910).
An 1895 Gilbertsville Union School Academy booklet contains recommendations for a classical course of study, requiring both Latin and Greek and culminating in the fourth year with readings of Homer’s “Iliad” and Virgil’s “Aeneid,” as well as Latin and Greek prose.
Dozens of paperback volumes of “Alma Mater,” dating as far back as 1935, provide records of school activity on mimeographed pages. One can ascertain the evolution from paperback to hardback of “Valley Memoirs,” the school yearbook reaching back to the early 1930s. Thumbing through these documents, one can see photos of persons long deceased but whose names live on in the Gilbertsville community: Floyd Baker, Sumner Birdsall, Carl Gage, Louise Musson, Robert Hankey and others.
Photographs are an important part of the exhibit. There is a small picture album from the Presbyterian Church featuring photos from Gilbertsville’s sesquicentennial. Many nostalgia-producing photo postcards depict village residences then occupied by William N. Dietz, Mrs. E.S. Frone and James B. Wickes, and others—as well as points of interest, such as the Empire House, the Gilbertsville Free Library, Studio Dionysus, and the Episcopal Church.
One of the postcards reads, “Dear Louie, Arrived home okay but have been sorry lonesome since I got here.”
A steady stream of visitors—approximately 30 people—attended the exhibit on Saturday, May 17, some lifelong residents of Gilbertsville, others more newly arrived. Sean Herbert, who moved to Gilbertsville in 2021, expressed enthusiasm for the effort.
“I love that the community is coming together to learn about itself. That’s what’s missing in modern society, when you rely too much on social media to communicate. Right here, right now, you can find out about your history. I thumbed through an 1895 photo book looking for my own home. It was the high point of the day,” Herbert said.
Jake Favinger, 16, a Gilbertsville resident, freshman at Unadilla Valley Central School and student athlete, enjoyed looking at the sports coverage in past yearbooks.
“I like seeing all the sports teams from the schools, seeing their uniforms. There are some of the same teams we’re playing now,” he said.
Lifelong resident Keith Klingman, who attended with his wife, Penny, welcomed the exhibit.
“It’s nice that Larry’s sharing this. You used to be able to see all this in the library, but it got packed away. It’s nice to see the old pictures of the [Butternut Valley] Grange when it was the town hall,” he said.
Born in 1941, Smith has deep roots in Gilbertsville and the Town of Butternuts.
“My family has been here since the 1800s,” he said, noting that his great-grandparents operated a farm at what is now the site of Sugar Pond Farm on Lilley Hill Road.
Smith says he has been collecting local history memorabilia for about 30 years.
“I got interested in it due to Leigh Eckmair. I had many conversations with her. She knew everything,” Smith said.
Eckmair is the former historian for the Village of Gilbertsville and the Town of Oneonta and the former archivist for the Gilbertsville Free Library. In 2024, Eckmair received a legislative citation from the New York State Assembly. While recognizing distinguished careers, accomplishments, and service in general, the citation specifically acknowledged Eckmair for her involvement in a research project which ultimately quashed an Army Corps of Engineers plan to install a series of dams in the Butternut Valley.
