In Search Of (Oneonta!) History

GOHS’ Brzozowski Took Deep

Dive Into Adopted City’s Past

By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

Even as a boy growing up in Antrim, N.H., young Bob Brzozowski befriended his elderly neighbors, entranced by stories they told about the good ole days in their rural community.

When, age 9, he got a stamp collection book for Christmas, it piqued his interest in the larger world, from emerging African nations to Great Britain’s islands in the Atlantic and Pacific.

A broadening world view and the interest in everyday people have guided him, he’ll tell you, in 17 years at the helm of the Greater Oneonta Historical Society, six as president and 11 as executive director.

“People’s everyday lives are history,” he said in an interview after announcing last week that he will retired on Monday, Jan. 31.

Graduating from St. Anselm’s College, he joined the Peace Corps in Brazil, but bristled when a boss told him, “My goal is to have a television set in every household.” That was the last thing the farmers he was advising needed, he said.

After a carpentry stint back in New Hampshire – he also worked on George McGovern’s campaign, driving Shirley McLaine to a political event – he pursued an advanced degree at the University of the Americas in San Andrés Cholula, near Puebla, Mexico.

Naturally, his thesis dealt with the challenges of regular folks: In this case, how a local Aztec tribe, the Nauhas, was adapting to Mexico’s modernization.

That interest in the broader world took him next to Milwaukee, where he spent 16 years as associate director of Marquette University’s international programs, before assuming a similar role at SUNY Oneonta in 1996.

Even serving later as director of client services at Prof. John Clemens’ Leadership Institute at Hartwick College – adapting leadership skills from the Classics to modern life – served his interest in what makes people tick.

In Wisconsin, he also conducted tours for Historic Milwaukee Inc. and was active in the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance.

Arriving in Oneonta, the Upper Susquehanna Historical Society was in disarray, he was discouraged from getting involved. That changed when the GOHS emerged and Sally Mullen took charge.

In 2002, the historical society bought three-story brick 183 Main St., today’s history center. Mullen, who by reputation was hard to refuse, sought out Brzozowski and drafted him onto the board in February 2003.

He was unaware she was fighting terminal cancer. But when she entered Hospice in October, she again drafted the new board member – as her successor. She passed away on Jan. 8, 2004.

Finishing 183 Main has been the centerpiece of Brzozowski’s tenure.

By Sally Mullen’s passing, lead and asbestos were removed. The challenge was “the adaptive reuse of the oldest brick building on Main Street.”

With guidance from preservation architects Crawford & Stearns, Syracuse, the first floor became an exhibition and lecture space, and a gift shop. Renovations revealed the tile floor, tin ceiling and lead glass windows.

There were expensive surprises. Architect Randy Crawford “claims he’s the only person who crawled in the crawl space” under the roof. He discovered there was no firewall – since installed – between 183 Main and its twin to the west.

With a grant from the late Assemblyman Bill Magee, D-Nelson, attention turned to the second floor, and how to keep it from collapsing into the first floor as the Sally Mullen Community Research Center, now almost complete, was installed there.

Finally, on Sept. 21, 2017, state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, now retired, sponsored a $250,000 state grant to complete renovations of the third-floor ballroom, a piece Brzozowski has been developing for his successor, due to be announced in the next week.

A lot more has happened: almost monthly programs and quarterly exhibits. “My favorite was a simple one: the 28-foot-long panoramic photo of Oneonta,” Brzozowski said. “It was fun to watch people pick out their homes, or share memories of buildings that are no longer there.”

Oneontans were reminded of the great Collis Huntington, a store clerk drawn to California by the 1849 Gold Rush, who became one of that state’s Big Four, responsible
for linking the first trans-continental railroad Promontory Point, Utah, on May 10, 1869.

And of the great Carleton Watkins, who went West as well, crafting photographs and paved the way for Ansel Adams.

And the collaboration of Oneonta artist Carol Mandigo and Hamden muralist Frank Anthony, to complete five murals on the History Center’s Dietz Street wall memorializing all the businesses that occupied 183 Main.

All this was accomplished with a $65,000 annual budget – most of that salaries – and no full-time employees.

“He was standing on the shoulders of Sally Mullen and others, but his hard work, his commitment to the society and history center made it what it is,” said former GOHS president Janet Potter, who succeed Brzozowski when he was appointed executive director in 2009.

“He’s persistent,” she said. “He chips away at things until they get done.”

Former president Corinne Bresee said “it was a pleasure and honor to work with him and learn from him.”

The current president, John Pontius, was on the board with Brzozowski in the early days, left to complete his career at Albany’s Excelsior College, then rejoined the board after his return. “When I returned, it was an all-new organization,” he said. “…Bob was the driving force.”

While he’s retiring, the GOHS mainstay isn’t done. A former city councilman, he plans to refocus on “saving the Oneonta Theatre,” the former vaudeville house on Chestnut Street.

Also, he hopes to work with the “sh-PO,” the state History Preservation Office, in expanding the downtown National Historic District that Sally Mullen (and Cooperstown historic preservationist Jessie Ravage) helped create in the 1990s.

And, third, he plans to begin nudging City Hall toward a landmarks commission that would seek to preserve Oneonta’s truly historic buildings.
He also wonders whether the Greater Oneonta Historical Society, the largest and by far the most active in Otsego County, will be called upon to play a larger role in preserving and celebrating the county’s history.

“It’s probably something we should be thinking about,” he said, “and be open to at least exploring the possibility that there would be a need for an organization that has a broad mission.”