Monday, July 20, 2009

Week of 7/20/09 Open Hours

The Franklin County Historical & Museum Society's open hours for the week of July 20 are as follows:
The Director will not be in the office from 7-16 through 7-28: NO TOURS
The Schryer Center for Historical & Genealogical Research will follow its usual hours of operation (Tues-Fri 1-4pm)

Friday, July 10, 2009

Summer Series Lecture on Hotel Saranac


The Franklin County Historical & Museum Society will be hosting Charles Alexander, who will be presenting his research on the Hotel Saranac in Saranac Lake, NY, on Monday, July 13 at 7:00pm at the Schryer Center for Historical & Genealogical Research (behind the House of History), 51 Milwaukee St., Malone. The lecture is free and open to the public; donations are appreciated.

Hotel Saranac was opened in 1927 by Apollos "Paul" Smith in the tradition of fine city hotels of the day, with a Grand Ballroom and Grand Hall opening onto a terrace overlooking the village and scenic mountains. From 1961 to 2007, the hotel was operated by Paul Smith's College as a teaching hotel for students of Hotel & Restaurant Management and Culinary Arts. The tradition of this elegant hotel continues now under private ownership.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

A Blog 106 Years in the Making

The Franklin County Historical & Museum Society was founded in 1903 by a group of citizens intent upon preserving the material history of Franklin County, NY and fostering an appreciation of their shared past. The original articles of incorporation, dated January 7, 1903, give the objects of the Society as:

FIRST, To promote and encourage original historical research.

SECOND, To disseminate a greater knowledge of the history of Franklin County by the publication of literature relating to it.

THIRD, To gather books, manuscripts, pictures and relics of historic interest, and to establish a repository at Malone for their preservation.



Franklin Gazette clippings from the first secretary's notebook (click to enlarge)




The Society was re-incorporated in 1966 and granted an absolute charter by the New York State Board of Regents on November 24, 1969.



This foray into the world of blogging may not have been even in the wildest imaginations of those first members of the Historical Society, but their goal of "disseminat[ing] a greater knowledge of the history of Franklin County" is our great ambition here at this new blog, and we hope to make good on their promise.