TOWN OF GREECE HISTORIAN'S OFFICE

and the
GREECE HISTORICAL SOCIETY & MUSEUM
2010 ANNUAL REPORT
The Greece Historical Society was formed in 1969 and received its absolute charter from the New York
State Department of Education Board of Regents as a not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation on November 21,
1974. Concerned and interested community volunteers of various backgrounds and education lend their
talents to govern the organization as the Board of Trustees. They are guided in their efforts by
consultants of high standing in the museum field.

The Society’s purpose is to collect, preserve, research and share local history with the community whose
population is approximately 95,000. We strive to provide the community with an awareness of the past,
an appreciation of the present, and a vision for the future, giving a sense of “roots” and a greater feeling
of belonging.

To accomplish its purpose the Society offers:

- free public programs
- newspaper articles about local history
- group and school programs
- free docent led museum tours, especially school groups
- resource materials and books to area schools and libraries
- a resource library at our History Center
- special events
- a web site informing of coming programs and events, plus book and membership order
forms, online library
- DVD’s, videos and slides of various history subjects, sites and architecture
- a museum shop selling a variety of local history books
- the services of the Town Historian’s office, maintained at the History Center

In 1988 the former home of Gordon Howe, Greece Town Supervisor for 26 years and former Monroe
County Manager, was donated to the Society by Wegmans. The 1855 farm house has been restored by
the Society and sits on part of the Greece Town Campus, which the Society leases from the Town. This
Town land includes the Town Hall, Town Court, Library and Community & Senior Center. The house,
which the Society owns, is the home of the Society’s administrative offices, research library, museum
shop and the office of the Town Historian. An added wing houses The Greece Museum.

At present, the museum is open on Sunday afternoons or by appointment for docent lead tours. The
Society’s office is open Monday mornings, and by appointment. Special events are held during the
summer months. Special exhibits are shown throughout the year.
pg 1 -- G.H.S. 2010 Annual Report
HISTORIAN'S OFFICE
The Greece Historical Society is under contract with the Town of Greece as the "official" Town
Historian. That is, the Society, not an individual is the Greece Town Historian. However, the historic
documents, files, books etc. from the Historian’s Office files are still considered the property of the Town
of Greece. One room at the Greece Historical Center is considered the historian's office and not part of the
Greece Historical Society. The Greece Historical Society accessions household, farm, business, etc.
objects for their collection. There is reciprocation between the two entities, but each remains separate.
Although various individuals in the society carry out some of the responsibilities of the Town Historian
(i.e. education and programs), Alan Mueller, a long time Greece resident and Society member has the
primary responsibility of maintaining the historian's office. The information about the historian's office
in this report was written by Mr. Mueller. Following the activities of the Historian's Office are the other
programs and activities of the Greece Historical Society.

We continue to receive and archive important materials in the files.

With the closing of Our Lady of Mercy Church in June a small portion
of their archives came to the Historian's Office. Also, former
parishioner, Fred Amato made a CD with numerous photo's of the
parish for us. Other donations to the archives included memorabilia
from the Emmett Cooper family, including several early documents of
Greece, a grammar school book and genealogy were included in the gift
from Emmett Cooper's Grand Daughter. (The Greece Department of
Public Works occupies a portion of the former Cooper Farmstead on Long Pond Road). Through the
kindness of a longtime Greece Historical Society member a photograph-scrap book album from the 1912-
1940 period was scanned. The more important photo's were copied to prints and filed. The bulk of the
album concerned the original Charlotte High School, circa 1912 to 19l6, farming on Ridge Road near
Stone Road and numerous early families in that area. The Koerner - Richardson family histories were
enhanced from several emails containing family stories and photos of the former family homes in
Greece. This important information came from a family member who is the assistant principal of Arcadia
Middle School.

The Historian's Office continues to supply copies of photos

and archival material to the education committee and the
museum curatorial group for displays and exhibits. We also
furnish background material to the Greece Post and Democrat
& Chronicle reporters as it is requested. A notebook of
archival material was prepared pertaining to the Boy Scouts in
Greece from the early 1920's to date. (February, 2010 was the
one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts
of America.) Display material for a Scouting exhibit in the
museum was added to material loaned by the Seneca
Waterways Scout Archives. A Native American exhibit of a
semi-permanent nature is also being expanded in the museum. Some background information covering
the 1790 to 1840 period of the Seneca Tribe in our area was made available to those involved with this
project. In addition, another extended exhibit of former Town Supervisor and County Manager Gordon
Howe contains copies of snap shots and letters from the Historian's Office.

Most inquiries to the Historian's Office continue to be received by email or phone. Now that most of the
former North Gate Plaza is history, numerous requests for photos of its former glory and history were
received. Other requests came regarding World War One veterans, diary information for an early Greece
native, former names of several roads and a question about the source of Round Pond Creek which runs
through Greece and begins in the Town of Gates.
pg 2 -- G.H.S. 2010 Annual Report
The Historian's Office submits a page of vintage photos and pertinent text for the Society's by-monthly
publication, The Corinthian. Among issues from 2010 are articles and photo's about the demolition of the
former Buckman Dairy and Ice Cream Parlor, The Boy Scout's 100th Anniversary, The Alanson Britton
family, and an early Town supervisor, Lyman B. Langworthy.

A number of boards were mounted and displayed with material relating to the monthly talks by guest
speakers sponsored by The Greece Historical Society at The Town Hall. Where warranted, the display
boards are retained for use at the museum or other venues.

Representatives from the Canandaigua National Bank along with Mossien Associates, architects, met at
the Historian's Office to go through archival material of older Greece Schools and public buildings.
They were looking for ideas that might lead to a theme for the exterior and interior of the new bank
building proposed on Latta Road, near Long Pond Road.

Betty Fetter continues to assist us by copying newspaper articles and other fragile documents to more
permanent paper. She also types acknowledgement letters, plus, she helps with the ongoing filing as time
permits from her other duties at The Historic Society.

MUSEUM EXHIBITS
The Greece Historical Society's major exhibits in 2010 were a
four week exhibit in the February titled "Vietnam Remembered"
and another four week exhibit "The Notions of Sewing" in the
Fall. A one day exhibit on Native American artifacts from the
area drew nearly 70 people in
one day. Other changing exhibits
in the exhibit hall included "Boy
Scouts - 100 Years" and "Fun at
the Beach", an exhibit of vintage
bathing suits, and an exhibit of
nearly 100 Santa Claus dolls.

MUSEUM TOURS
Approximately 1,000 individuals toured the Greece Museum during 2010.
There is no way of knowing the exact number, as many individuals that
tour the museum do not sign our guest book, however approximately 850
individuals did sign in which included group tours of seniors, scouts,
elementary school children, including home schooled children and
Leadership Greece.

COMMUNITY EDUCATION
The Education Committee centered its efforts in 2010 on researching
Iroquois-Seneca villages and campsites in the Greece/Charlotte area
and planning a new exhibit which will illustrate the sites along Long
Pond, Cranberry Pond and the Genesee River of the early Iroquois
and the influence of European contact on their lifestyle. We will
feature artifacts found at these sites. Also featured will be
biographical information about prominent Seneca leaders. A special
exhibit of artifacts from the Rochester Museum and Science Center’s
Native American Collection that were found at area known sites was
brought to us by anthropologist George Hamell who is the collection’s manager. The artifacts are rarely
on display to the public.
pg 3 -- G.H.S. 2010 Annual Report
The Education Committee continues to work with Marc Flemming and Michelle Scamacca, Social
Studies directors for Greece Central Schools, supplying primary source materials for curriculum
development.

ORGANIZATIONAL PROMOTION
We spent one day promoting our Society at a History Fair in
Rochester and had an information booth at the Town's Ground
Hog Day celebration and a regional home school fair. The
Greece Post and Democrat & Chronicle have featured the
Greece Historical Society in many articles and columns during
the year. and local TV station YNN did a feature story for our
Viet Nam exhibit.

PROGRAMS

Our eight monthly lectures featuring local historians and humanities scholars, have again proven to be
very popular with the community. During 2010 attendance varied from as few as 75 to as many as 165.
The programs in October titled "Trunks and Travels" was part of the Speakers in the Humanities series
sponsored by the New York State Council for the Humanities.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT
In the past year the curator of the Fairport Museum gave
us instructions on museum and historical society
management. Members of Greece Historical Society have
attended a Document Heritage Program held in Genesee
Country Village & Museum, the statewide Museumwise
conference in Albany, a tour of the archives of Rochester
Museum & Science Center and Rochester Historical
Society and visited the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum
in Salamanca. The Society also hosted a program for local
historians on the preservation of scrap books and Lee
Strauss completed a course on Collection Care
Management conducted by the Farmer's Museum at
Cooperstown. Society staff also attended a regional history reception hosted by Museumwise at the
Ellwanger estate in Rochester.

EQUIPMENT ACQUIRED
New equipment this year included one large and two small glass display case, and we received a used
laptop computer from the Town of Greece.

pg 4 -- G.H.S. 2010 Annual Report

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS
There were no major capital improvements to the museum building in 2010.

ORGANIZATIONS:
It is imperative that the Greece Historical Society maintain a relationship with professional and
community organizations. The following are the organizations that the Society is a member of, or has a
working relationship with: The Association for Public Historians of New York State, Greece Chamber of
Commerce, Landmark Society of Western New York, Western New York Association of Historical
Agencies, Museumwise (formerly Upstate History Alliance), American Association of State and County
Historians, Rochester Regional Library Council and the New York Council for Non-Profits. We also
maintain a close co-operation with local historic societies and meet regularly with local municipal
historians.

INVENTORY – CATALOGING
The Society is making plans to purchase needed computer equipment and PastPerfect Software, a
collection management software designed for museums and used by many NY State museums. We have
been organizing the information about our artifacts, archives and photographic images in preparation of
obtaining the state of the art software. We are fortunate to have as volunteers Sue Hodge, who works
with the program at Genesee Country Museum and Village, and Peggy Sloey, whose experience and
organizational skills are an asset to the project.

WEB SITE
http://www.greecehistoricalsociety.net The web site has had as few as 250 and as many as 500 hits in
each month of 2010. Although we are sure some of the hits are individuals looking for "Greek" history it
is still impressive that so many people are looking at our historical society and museum. In December a
new more modern looking web site was developed and is now up and running.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION
The Greece Historical Society provides information to the Greece Historic Preservation Commission and
Bill Sauers is a member of that commission.

FUNDRAISING
The major fundraising event of the year was the annual
Strawberry Festival, which was expanded this year to include a
"Dessert Tasting" with area vendors offering samples of their
dessert products, plus a D-J, entertainment and information
displays from several local non-profit organizations The event
drew nearly 500 people from the community .

VOLUNTEERS

It takes many volunteers to run our organization. Some may loan

us a treasured heirloom, fix a broken chair, help with a single event
or guide visitors through our museum on Sunday afternoons, still
others spend literally hundreds of hours during the year to keep the
place going.

With so many volunteers throughout the year, it is just impossible

to list everyone, especially with all the help we received this past
year.

pg 5 -- G.H.S. 2010 Annual Report

Some of our activates and programs where volunteers played a special part in 2010 were:

The Vietnam Remembered exhibit in February, when area businesses, civic leaders, Chapter 20,
Vietnam Veterans of America and countless others helped create a unique exhibit. The Strawberry &
Dessert Tasting Festival in June was so successful because of the outstanding community support from
area vendors, local non-profit groups and the many, many volunteers who helped. The Boy Scout exhibit
could not have been but together without the volunteers from Seneca Waterways Council, BSA and
individuals who helped with loaning items and setup. The Native American Artifacts Day in November
was our single busiest Sunday of the year at the museum because of the cooperation of the Rochester
Museum & Science Center and our pioneer families who graciously displayed their artifacts.

Other exhibits such as "Fun at the Beach", "Notions of Sewing" and " Santa Clauses", each took many
hours of volunteer time from countless people, and let's not forget the many school and scout tours that
were conducted by several retired teachers from our education committee. Then there were our Sunday
docents, the museum shop committee, the regular Monday morning group and our board of trustees. We
can't forget the Greece Garden Clubs who maintain our gardens and the employees from the Town who
would occasionally lend a hand when needed.

2010 BOARD OF TRUSTEES:

William M. Sauers (President)
Wendy Peeck (Vice President)
Jack Wallenhorst(Treasurer)
Lee Strauss (Booking & Education)
Sandy Peck (Secretary)
Cynthia Shevlin (Newsletter Editor)
Marge Zercie (Communications)
Jack Wallenhorst
Sue Hodge
Roberta Young
Viola White
Lorraine Beane (Executive Director)
Donald C. Newcomb (Honorary Trustee)

Alan Mueller (Historian’s Office)

pg 6 -- G.H.S. 2010 Annual Report