Little Falls Historical Society Museum Events

  • This day in history: September 20

    1982

    The new expansion of the Little Falls Public Library has opened.  The addition was beautifully designed to match the architecture of the original building. The opened space allows for the library to display their extensive collections of Little Falls diamonds and other rare collectables.

    1983

    With a solemn final toast, “The Last Man’s Club” of Little Falls played out its final chapter and was dissolved.  Formed in 1919 by twelve members of the glee club at St. Mary’s Academy, the group met at an annual dinner at Kane’s Tavern to toast deceased members. Phil Wlll uncorked a vintage bottle of 1939 white Bordeaux for the final toast.

From the Cooney Archives

News and Updates

Help keep community history alive this Christmas

As the holidays are upon us, the Little Falls Historical Society would like you to consider giving loved ones and friends copies of the great book BEYOND OUR BICENTENNIAL as Christmas gifts.

World War II Exhibit | Little Falls Historical Society Museum | Little Falls NY

The Little Falls Historical Society Honors our Nation’s Veterans

The Little Falls Historical Museum would like to honor all US Military Veterans for Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2022.

Main Street circa 1880, looking west from Mary St

1882: The Year of Pestilence, Death and Solutions in Little Falls by David Krutz

The summer of 1882 was a bad time to be an inhabitant of Little Falls as sickness and death raged throughout the village. In those few months, an estimated sixty people died, with hundreds more sickened – over half of the deaths were of infants and adolescents. Cholera, typhoid fever and “brain congestion”, at the time often lumped together as “malarial disease”, were the culprits. Victims of cholera suffered severe cases of diarrhea and subsequent dehydration, with death sometimes occurring within hours or a few days from the onset of symptoms.

Those Were The Days by John Frazier

St. Mary’s Parish (now Holy Family Parish) had a new priest, and this was his first assignment out of the seminary. He was young, he was friendly, he had an easy smile, most of the girls liked him because he was good looking, and the boys liked him because if there was a basketball game going on, he liked to take off his collar and join the game.

Broomsticks and Ballots by Ray Lenarcic

I love Halloween. Always have. My earliest remembrance is dressing up in a cowboy outfit complete with flannel shirt, neckerchief, vest, chaps and the piece de resistance, a pearl-handled, silver Lone Ranger cap pistol.

Morgan’s Dairy by Bart Carrig

“Around the back and up the stairs…” That’s how our mornings began.

The first time I heard that instruction, from my Uncle Morgan Carrig, it was about 5:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning, circa mid-June 1964. My older brother Kevin, who had previously enjoyed all the benefits and privileges of employment as a milk delivery boy for Morgan’s Dairy, was “unavailable” – no doubt due to a Friday night dance at Filipski’s bowling alley on the South Side.

Upon Turning 80 by Ray Lenarcic

I never thought about turning 80. Because I hadn’t. But now that I’m about to, I was asked by a friend if there was one word that could describe how I felt about becoming an octogenarian.