Cobblestone Museum celebrates busy 2023, looks forward to ground-breaking on visitors center

Photos by Tom Rivers: Erin Anheier is presented with the John Proctor Award from Bill Lattin, retired Cobblestone Museum director, for her service on the museum board, including the past three years as president. Anheier helped secure $229,000 in grants towards preserving buildings at the museum, which is a National Historic Landmark. She is currently working on an application to have the hamlet of Childs be included on the National Register of Historic Places.

CHILDS – The Cobblestone Society met for its 63rd annual meeting Saturday at the Gaines-Carlton Community Church.

The meeting celebrated a year in which the Cobblestone Society and Museum saw a lot of successes, the most significant being receiving enough funds to begin construction next year on what on a visitors center promoting Orleans County attractions.

Cobblestone Museum director Doug Farley welcomed guests and introduced pastor David Beach, who gave the invocation, followed by a traditional founder’s toast by Gerard Morrisey.

Richard Remley, the museum’s executive vice president, goes over highlights from 2023.

After a turkey dinner prepared by the women of the church, the members moved into the sanctuary, where board president Erin Anheier presided over the annual meeting, which included election of officers, treasurer’s report by Dick Remley and presentation of special awards.

Remley called 2023 the “emergence of the museum out of the pandemic.” After a two years of reduced programming, Remley said 2023 has been extremely active.

He named their two major projects – the Vagg House and Thompson-Kast Visitors Center. Construction is expected to being in mid-2024 to build an addition to the south end of a 1830s brick home, which the Cobblestone Society purchased as a visitors center. The addition will provide meeting space for 100 people. The Cobblestone Society met their capital campaign goal of $750,000, enabling them to purchase the Burke property without borrowing any money.

To date, 13 naming opportunities for the future visitors center have been accepted, and six are still available.

Other successes of the year include a membership dinner which raised much-needed operating funds, a Summer Soiree, flea market, and the first Historic Preservation Awards dinner. The Dunn Martin internship program provided the full expense for three summer interns, totaling $9,000. A Challenge Grant resulted in $24,575 in operating funds, exceeding their goal of $10,000.

Other grants received during the year were $13,000 from the Curtis Foundation, $32,867 from the Rochester Area Foundation, $3,000 for operating money from Orleans County, $9,000 from the Ralph C. Wilson Foundation for operating expenses and $5,000 from Go Art!.

Preservation work on the Ward House has begun with a $47,080 Genesee Valley Rural Revitalization grant.

“We are off and running for 2024,” Remley said. “For the first three quarters of 2023, our income and grants received are greater than expenditures by $36,000.”

New officers elected during the meeting were Matt Holland, president; Richard Remley, executive vice president; Christine Sartwell, vice president of development; Brenda Radzinski, secretary; Maarit Vaga, treasurer; Grace Denniston, corresponding secretary; and Gail Johnson, membership secretary.

Trustees elected were Lawrence Albanese, Erin Anheier and Marty Taber, terms ending Dec. 31, 2026; Mark Bower, Diana Flow, John Sansone and Doreen Wilson, terms ending Dec. 31, 2025; and Chris Capurso, Camilla VanderLinden, Bill Lattin and Joyce Riley, terms ending Dec. 31, 2024.

The first of several awards was the John Proctor Award, presented to Erin Anheier. Bill Lattin, retired museum director, said Anheier is “a person who does what she says.” Anheier is credited with bringing in $229,000 for the museum. That award goes to a dedicated member of the museum board of trustees.

She writes proposals to secure grant funding and also recognition on the National Register of Historic Places. She was influential in the restoration of the Hillside Cemetery Chapel in Holley. She got the Gaines Basin cobblestone school house on the National Register and now is working to get the entire hamlet of Childs listed. She also got Childs included in the Landmark Society’s “Five to Revive.”

Ginny Kropf of Medina accepts the Community Partner Award for her work as a news reporter. Doug Farley, the museum director in back, said Kropf is very reliable in writing about the museum’s activities.

Farley presented the Community Partner of the Year award to Ginny Kropf, who he said writes many articles for Orleans Hub and Lockport United Sun and Journal promoting the Cobblestone Museum’s activities.

Kropf has written 45 articles in the past six years highlighting museum programs and initiatives. Farley said Kropf has long been a dependable reporter for the community.

Lora Partyka, left, accepts the Business Partner of the Year from Sue Bonafini, assistant museum director.

The Business Partner of the Year was presented to Lora Partyka of Partyka Farms in Kendall.

“I first met Lora in 2016 when I went to ask her for an item for a gift basket we were putting together,” said Sue Bonafini, museum assistant director. “She said, ‘How would you like an entire gift basket.’ When I was short one or two sponsors for an event after the pandemic, I went to Lora, and she closed the gap.”

Partyka has continued to be a dependable contributor to the museum, donating corn on the cob and sponsoring events.

Mary Zangerle of Medina accepts the award for Volunteer of the Year from Sue Bonafini.

Volunteer of the Year for 2023 was Mary Zangerle of Medina. Zangerle began volunteering for the Cobblestone Museum in 2015 at the suggestion of Shirley Bright-Neeper. She is an avid Master Gardener and several years ago came to Bonafini and asked if she could do something “more administrative.” Zangerle learned how to use the Museum’s software and maintains records, organizes files and trains interns.

“She puts in 50 to 100 volunteer hours every year,” Bonafini said. “She volunteers year-round.”

Ann Mitchell of Spencerport, formerly of Kendall, quotes Sarah Jennie McCleery, a school teacher and resident of Ogden, from a speech given March 6, 1883. Mitchell entertained with her presentation of “Suffragettes UNITE!” at the Cobblestone Society’s annual meeting Saturday at the Gaines-Carlton Community Church.

The afternoon concluded with a program by Ann Mitchell of Spencerport, formerly of Kendall, titled “Suffragettes UNITE.” Mitchell has always been interested in the theater and singing. In 1976, she won the talent portion of the Orleans County Junior Miss Pageant.

After she was married, her husband once told her, “You have to vote. It’s your right.”

She developed Suffragettes UNITE as her final project at Brockport.

“I feel it’s important,” she said. “It reflects our history.”

In her presentation, she is dressed in period costumes as she quotes from suffragettes in our nation’s history. This includes “Equal Rights” by Sarah C. Owen Aug. 2, 1848 at the Unitarian Church in Rochester; “The Right to Vote” by Elizabeth C. Stanton on Feb. 17, 1864 in the New York State Legislature; “Is it a Crime for a U.S. Citizen to Vote?” by Susan B. Anthony in March and April in Monroe County; “Emancipation – War if we Must” by Elizabeth C. Stanton on May 6, 1873 for the National Woman’s Suffrage Association; and “On Being a Woman” by Sarah Jennie McCleary, a school teacher/resident of Ogden, on March 6, 1883 in The School Journal, Spencerport.

About 50 members of the Cobblestone Society enjoyed lunch at the Gaines Carlton Community Church.