Little Falls Historical Society Museum Events

  • This day in history: December 19

    1898

    The old Girvan House suffered severely from fire forcing forty-five guests and other inmates out into the cold. The fire was believed to have started in the rear of Joe Wright’s fruit store.

    1933

    It’s full speed ahead to get the Melrose Slipper company of New York City into operation in Little Falls. All doubts about the ability of the company to secure a sufficiency of help would seem to be removed by the number of applications made to the company’s New York office. 125 to 150 jobs are projected.

    1941

    WW II Era – A record 181 trains on the New York Central line passed through Little Falls in a single day.

  • This day in history: December 20

    1855

    General Z.C. Priest received $166.66 per month as Assistant Superintendent of the railroad.

    1910

    Some weeks ago, the Presbyterian church society purchased a large lot on Jackson Street upon which a parish house was to be erected. An announcement was made today, with a change of plans, that David H. Burrell has donated $50,000 to cover the expense of a project which became the fully equipped Y.M.C.A. on the site.

    1920

    Headlines screamed ”PHOENIX MILLS CLOSE FOR INDEFINITE PERIOD” as about 1000 hands were unemployed, heralding the beginning of a major business depression. Three months later, the workers returned to work accepting a 23% reduction in wages rather than remaining unemployed.

From the Cooney Archives

News and Updates

Moreland Park

Little Falls Philanthropy by Louis W. Baum

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What did wealthy people do with their money? Some spent lavishly on themselves and their families caring little for their fellow man; others were philanthropic. Over the years, the citizens of Little Falls have greatly benefited in many different ways from the philanthropy of several of its leading residents who lived here in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

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Bygone Little Falls winters of skiing and sledding by Jeffrey Gressler

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Decades before there was a Pine Ridge ski center in Salisbury or a Shu-maker Mountain ski area outside Little Falls, generations of Little Falls winter sports enthusiasts skied and sledded down the vertical drops that typify our steep, narrow Mohawk Valley topography.

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Help keep community history alive this Christmas

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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.

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

The Little Falls Historical Society Honors our Nation’s Veterans

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

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Main Street circa 1880, looking west from Mary St

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

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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.

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Those Were The Days by John Frazier

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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.

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Broomsticks and Ballots by Ray Lenarcic

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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.

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