Shelby plans 200th anniversary celebration for town
Fashion show, proclamations and other festivities on June 16
Photo by Tom Rivers: Alice Zacher, the Shelby town historian, is pictured with vintage dresses that will be modelled during a fashion show at 2 p.m. on June 16 at Oak Orchard Elementary School in Medina.
SHELBY – Town Historian Alice Zacher and the staff at the Shelby Town Hall have been busy preparing for a bicentennial celebration for the town.
The 200th anniversary party will begin at 9 a.m. on June 16 at the Shelby Town Hall with proclamations from elected officials about the town’s milestone anniversary. There will be lemonade, cookies and popcorn at that event, with a slideshow about the town’s history.
There also will be a self-guided car tour that takes people to Millville, East Shelby, West Shelby and Shelby Center, Zacher told the Town Board on Tuesday evening.
The town will have a large banner, declaring Shelby’s 200th birthday, displayed in Rotary Park in downtown Medina. The Bicentennial Committee also is having magnets made for the town’s 200 years that will be given away at the Town Hall and during bicentennial events.
The big event on the bicentennial will be a fashion show at 2 p.m. on June 16. Zacher has organized a show with fashions from the pioneer days – “the pioneer settlers weren’t too fashionable” – up to the more recent era. She is trying to highlight the changing tastes in clothes for almost every decade since the founding of the town.
Some of the dresses will be in the style of Frances Folsom, the First Lady from Medina who was married to President Grover Cleveland from 1886 to 1889, and for his second term from 1893 to 1897. Folsom was a celebrity who appeared on numerous magazine covers. She wore dresses that exposed her bare shoulders, which created a media sensation, Zacher said.
Former Town Supervisor Skip Draper will serve as emcee for the fashion show, with Georgia Thomas the narrator, giving details about the dresses and the era the style was popular. Amy Miller will play the piano for the event, which will include local residents modelling the clothes. (Zacher welcomes volunteer models – men and woman. They can call the Town Hall: 585-798-3120.)
The town has also applied to the William G. Pomeroy Foundation for a historical marker for the cemetery in Shelby Center, near the Shelby Fire Hall. The Pomeroy Foundation paid for the marker for the Millville Cemetery in 2015.
