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What’s Happening at JHS

PRESS RELEASE: January 24, 2022

Johnsburg Historical Society reflects on incredible year.

2021 was one for the history books for the Johnsburg Historical Society (JHS). As a very young board of trustees, not in age, but in time with JHS, they became very active. Having been promised the wonderful donation by Glenn Pearsall for the purchase of the Robert & Electa Waddell House in Wevertown to be turned into a museum of Johnsburg history, they dove into the business of raising funds needed for readying of the house, once the purchase was complete on June 30th.

This is a good start toward opening the museum, but it is just the beginning.

JHS has a budget for operating expenses and the house-museum project. A Marketing and Opening Plan, using the budget numbers, was set up for the first phase of the project which was to communicate the purchase of the house to the members and the public, and start needed upgrades and renovations on the house. JHS is privileged to have received the listed grants and hopes to open the museum by July 2022. The second phase will include painting the house, and preservation plans.

It has been a challenging and extremely rewarding time for JHS.

 Town of Johnsburg Occupancy Tax award: $7,500.00 to help with Marketing and Opening Plan for the Waddell House. This was received in two different parts: $2,500.00 in January and $5,000.00 in July 2021. Johnsburg’s Occ Tax benefits different organizations throughout the town.

Adirondack Foundation – Their mission: Enhancing the lives of people in the Adirondacks through philanthropy. They manage various funds.

Generous Acts Fund:

The Tim and Barbara Murphy Family Fund – $2700.00

The Community Fund for the Gore Mountain Region – $1729.00

Both to help with the Marketing and Opening Plan for the Waddell House.

The Community Fund for the Gore Mountain Region:  $1,000.00 for help with costs of the summer and fall 2021 newsletters.

Glens Falls Foundation:  Their primary purpose has been to improve the quality of life for the people of the Greater Glens Falls area by providing financial support to organizations that address the community’s human, social, cultural, and educational needs, $3,000.00. These funds are planned to be used for the ADA compliance of the house.

Cloudsplitter Foundation: Their primary focus is the greater Adirondack Region. Main interests include environment, community building, economic sustainability, communications, and data infrastructure, and helping the most vulnerable neighbors, $4,000.00. Also planned for ADA compliance of the house.

The Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council (LARAC) made the September Open House possible with funds of $900.00. The Open House provided a chance to view the house before renovations are started. The weekend was highly successful with 135+ visitors.

1. H. Schrade Enterprises of North Creek provided needed facilities.

The Walmart Community Grants Team and Facility #4403 awarded $800.00 in grant funds for purchases to update the office and items needed toward the opening of the museum, signage, and emergency supplies. Mrs. Helen Walton used to say, “It’s not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived.”

The William G. Pomeroy Foundation in late 2020, awarded $3,420.00 in funds for three historic markers to be placed about town. These were in honor of Andrus Wever, settler in Wevertown; Rev. Enos Putnam, abolitionist and Wesleyan Methodist minister; and the Barton Mines Corp. These can be viewed on this website under HOME. One of the William G. Pomeroy Foundation’s core initiatives is to help people celebrate their community’s history. Their New York State Historic Marker Grant Program commemorates historic people, places, things, or events within the timeframe of 1740-1921. Since 2006, the Foundation has funded more than 700 markers in 58 New York State counties.

JHS’s raffles were made possible by Gore Mountain Ski Center, season pass valued at $1069.00, and

Cronin’s Golf Resort, two “Golf for 2” with cart rounds of golf, value $216.00.

JHS is thankful to each of these organizations for their generous contributions.

JHS also truly appreciates all who contributed through membership and donations.

JHS’s Mission: To preserve the history of the Town of Johnsburg; To promote regional historic education; To promote and encourage historical research; To preserve and protect buildings and sites of historic interest, to collect and preserve records, relics, and other things of historic interest; To mark places of historic interest with suitable monuments and markers; To foster and promote public knowledge of and interest in local and national history. The Johnsburg History Society is a non-profit 501(c)(3). Donations are tax exempt to the extent allowed by law. JHS is a non-partisan, non-political organization.