Founded in 1916, the Columbia County Historical Society and CCHS Museum & Library collects, preserves, interprets, and presents the history, heritage, and culture of Columbia County, New York, and serves residents of all eighteen Columbia County towns and the city of Hudson.
CCHS collections include important and rare genealogical materials, archives, paintings, photographs, textiles, furniture and decorative arts relating to Columbia County's heritage.
The Columbia County Historical Society owns and maintains four historic properties including a museum & library at its headquarters located in the village of Kinderhook, New York at the corner of Broad Street and Albany Avenue. It also publishes a biannual magazine, Columbia County History & Heritage.
History
CCHS Museum & Library. Headquarters of the Columbia County Historical Society.c.1737 Luykas Van Alen House, Kinderhook, New York. Collection of the Columbia County Historical Society, acquired in 1964.
The Columbia County Historical Society was founded in 1916 as a women' social and philanthropic club. The historical society first admitted men with a men's auxiliary in 1917 and became fully coed when it incorporated in 1924 as the Columbia County Historical Society, Inc. In 2016, the CCHS celebrated its centennial with publication of its institutional history and exhibition, "100 Years of Collecting". The Historical Society generally focuses on New York State and Dutch Colonial history and culture.[1]
c.1820 James Vanderpoel 'House of History', Kinderhook, New York. Collection of the Columbia County Historical Society, acquired in 1924.Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse
the Headquarters building houses the museum & library, collections storage exhibit galleries as well as staff offices
Collections
CCHS collections include works of art, paintings, photographs, decorative arts, maps, furniture, textiles, costumes, books and rare manuscripts, as well as four historic properties: The 1737 National Historic Landmark, Dutch Colonial 'Luykas Van Alen House'; c.1820 James Vanderpoel House;[2] c1850 Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse; and the 1915 CCHS Museum & Library building.
The Barbara P. Rielly Memorial Research Library (located within the headquarters building) is named for a former CCHS Board of Trustees President, and holds material on Columbia County and New York State history, genealogy, architecture, and decorative arts as well as manuscripts, books, maps, architectural drawings, diaries, personal correspondence, scrap books, broadsides, business records, pamphlets, programs, ephemera, photographic prints, glass and film negatives, cased images, and albums.
Cultural Heritage Outdoor Narrative - Open Air Museum
The Original Ichabod Crane - narrative panel
Nestled among the treeline of the contiguous rural properties on Highway 9H - Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse and Luykas Van Alen House - is a permanent outdoor exhibition of Hudson Valley and Columbia County Cultural Heritage. This permanent outdoor exhibit interprets the history of northern Columbia County, and consists of eight narrative panels placed throughout the CCHS fifty-acre Rural Properties site. On view are the stories of the people who lived, worked, created, and learned in the County from the 17th through the 20th centuries. Narrative panel subjects include: Native Inhabitants; The Van Alen Family & Early Dutch Settlers; Colonial Dutch Architecture; Black Locust Trees; Washington Irving; The Original Ichabod Crane; One-Room Schoolhouses; Eleanor Roosevelt at Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse. Location: 2589 NY-9H, Kinderhook, NY 12037
Headquarters
The CCHS Museum & Library building was constructed in 1915 by the Kinderhook Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons as their temple. During the 1970s the building was sold to the local chapter of the Elks Club as their Kinderhook Lodge. The Elks moved to their present location on NY-9H in Kinderhook during the late 1980s and the building was sold again to the CCHS, who reinvented the structure as their headquarters, with the CCHS Research Library on the main floor along with a small gallery, manuscript storage and offices; and large gallery space on the second floor with executive offices and collections storage.
Overview
The Columbia County Historical Society New York, is the largest historic organization in Columbia County, New York and is one of the largest in the Hudson Valley | Capital District region, as well as a cultural anchor in the County. CCHS presents exhibitions, public and educational programming, and offers a research library open to the public with regular hours. The CCHS holds an extensive collection of NYS historical artifacts, portraits and works of art—primarily of the Hudson Valley—and other materials documenting the history of Columbia County and New York State. It presents exhibitions on a variety of topics related to the history, heritage and culture of Columbia County, such as early Dutch Settlers, Native American and African-American settlers, Hudson River School painters, Hudson Valley portraiture, New York-made furniture, Columbia County historical costumes and textiles, and local history events.
Each year, the Historical Society provides tours of the Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse and Luykas Van Alen House to fourth graders throughout Columbia County, and also offers several curriculum-based school programs and teacher resources, and organizes ongoing lecture series and events for adults to foster a deep appreciation of New York and Columbia County history and culture.
Columbia County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 61,570. The county seat is Hudson. The name comes from the Latin feminine form of the name of Christopher Columbus, which was at the time of the formation of the county a popular proposal for the name of the United States.
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is an 1820 short story by American author Washington Irving, contained in his collection of 34 essays and short stories titled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Irving wrote the story while living in Birmingham, England.
Valatie is a village with several waterfalls in Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 1,819 at the 2010 census. The village is at the center of the town of Kinderhook on US 9.
Schodack is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The population was 12,965 at the 2020 census. The town name is derived from the Mahican word, Escotak. The town is in the southwestern part of the county. Schodack is southeast of Albany, New York.
Kinderhook is a village in the town of Kinderhook in Columbia County, New York, United States. The village population was 1,211 at the 2010 census. The village of Kinderhook is located in the south-central part of the town on US 9. The eighth President of the United States, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook and retired to the area (Lindenwald).
Kinderhook is a town in the northern part of Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 8,330 at the 2020 census, making it the most populous municipality in Columbia County. The name of the town means "Children's Corner" in the language of the original Dutch settlers (Kinderhoek). The name "Kinderhook" has its root in the landing of Henry Hudson in the area around present-day Stuyvesant, where he was greeted by Native Americans with many children. With the Dutch kind meaning "child" and hoek meaning "corner", it could be that the name refers to a bend in the river where the children are. The eighth President of the United States, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook and retired to it.
Ichabod Crane is a fictional character and the protagonist in Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Crane is portrayed in the original work, and in most adaptations, as a tall, lanky individual. He is the local schoolmaster, and strongly believes in all things supernatural, including the legend of the Headless Horseman. Crane eventually tries unsuccessfully to court the heiress Katrina Van Tassel, a decision that angers Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, a local man who also wishes to marry Katrina. After supposedly proposing to Katrina, Crane is headed home alone at night when the Headless Horseman appears and chases the schoolmaster, until the Horseman throws his pumpkin head at him, causing him to mysteriously disappear without a trace.
Valentown Hall is the name of an abandoned historic shopping and community center located in Victor, New York. The structure was built in 1879 by Levi Valentine, and today it is operated as a museum on the National Register of Historic Places.
James Isaac Van Alen was an American politician who was a representative from New York and an elder half brother of U.S. President Martin Van Buren.
The Luykas Van Alen House is an historic Dutch Colonial farmhouse at 2589 New York State Route 9H in the town of Kinderhook, Columbia County, New York. Built about 1737 and enlarged about 1750, it is one of the finest surviving examples of Dutch colonial architecture in upstate New York. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1967. It is now an historic house museum operated by the Columbia County Historical Society, and open for tours on weekends from June to October.
Jan Van Hoesen House is an early-18th-century house in New York State. Northeast on NY 66 of Hudson towards Chatham, just east of Claverack Creek, stands a vacant medieval-looking brick structure over the Dutch Acres Mobile Home Park. Like the Columbia County Historical Society's Luykas Van Alen House in Kinderhook, the steeply-pitched roof, parapet-gabled house is a rare surviving example of a type of rural house characteristic of the upper Hudson Valley in the first half of the 18th century. Van Hoesen House is located on Route 66, north of the City of Hudson.
Isaac V. Vanderpoel was an American lawyer and politician. Vanderpoel was a Democratic party mainstay and from 1866 to 1869, had a law partnership with the eventual U.S. President Grover Cleveland.
The Kinderhook Village District is located in the central areas of the village of Kinderhook, New York, United States. It is a 612-acre (248 ha) area covering both developed and undeveloped land centered on US 9.
The Van Allen House is located in Oakland, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The house was built around 1740 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 24, 1973.
Kinderhook Central School District is located in between the Catskill and Berkshire mountains and serves a population of 8,296 residents in northern Columbia and southern Rensselaer counties in New York. The district is in a rural setting 26 miles southeast of New York's capital, Albany, 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Hudson, and 120 miles north of New York City. The Ichabod Crane Central School District was formed in 1954, incorporating seven community schools into one centralized district. Currently there are three buildings, down from five after in 2012 the district closed down the elementary school of Martin H. Glynn and Martin Van Buren, the latter named after Van Buren, who made his home in Kinderhook, served as a New York state attorney general, vice president under Andrew Jackson, and as the eighth president of the United States. Glynn, raised in the village of Valatie, served as a U.S. representative, as well as the governor of New York from 1913 to 1915.
The Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse is an historic wooden one-room schoolhouse built in approximately 1850 in the Hudson River valley. Located on NY 9H, about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Kinderhook village in Columbia County, New York and 2 miles (3.2 km) south of US 9, the schoolhouse is named after author Washington Irving's fictional character, Ichabod Crane in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Jesse Merwin, called the "pattern" or "original" of Ichabod Crane, was a rural schoolmaster in Upstate New York, and a friend of Martin Van Buren and Washington Irving. He taught school at a single-room schoolhouse in Columbia County, New York.
Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States, was the son of Abraham Van Buren (1737–1817) and Maria Hoes Van Alen (1747–1818).
Abraham Van Buren was an American businessman and local public official from Kinderhook, New York. A Patriot and militia veteran of the American Revolutionary War, he was the father of Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States.
The Chenango County Historical Society is an organization in Norwich, NY, devoted to preserving the history of Chenango County. The Norwich campus consists of the Ward No. 2 Schoolhouse, where the museum is housed, the James S. Flanagan Research Center, Loomis Barn and the Miller Pavilion. The Historical Society hosts various events covering local historical events and topics. The organization publishes an annual academic journal documenting historical events.
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