Museum Reception Kicks Off Centennial Celebration

A throng of Bedford residents gathered last night to kick off a celebration of their town's past and its current community spirit. Neighbors, friends, and community officials crowded the Bedford Hills Historical Museum to see the past and the present at the museum's new exhibit Then & Now, mounted in honor of the Bedford Hills Centennial, which begins today.

The exhibit pairs a historical photo of a site or building in Bedford Hills with a current photo taken from as close to the same angle as possible. In some cases, the new photo shows the same building still standing, but in others the scene is starkly different from how it used to be.

To create the exhibit, several board members of the museum pored over the old photographs and then went around town to photograph the same locations, said Mitch Horn, co-president of the museum. Most of the new photos are by Elin P. Sullivan, co-president, and Richard Schmitt, trustee of the museum, Horn said.

"They just went walking around with a camera for a week," he said.

David F. Brown stood looking at the old photos with Schmitt. Brown is  a commissioner of the Bedford Hills Fire Department and is a third-generation resident of Bedford Hills.

"My grandfather was the first minister of Antioch Baptist Church," he said. "I guess I'm an old timer."

Schmitt started counting back the generations that his family had been in Bedford Hills before finally saying that his family has been in the hamlet since 1750. He joked about the photo exhibit with Brown.

"Dave took the 'Then' pictures and I took the "Now," said Schmitt.

"I think this is fantastic. A huge amount of work went into getting the before and after photos," said Rhoda Gushue, who has lived in Bedford since 1960. She noted a photo of a kindergarten class taken in 1945 paired with a photo of the current crop of kindergarteners at Bedford Hills Elementary School. "It gives you an insight," she said.

In attendance at the reception was . He was applauded when he was introduced by Elin Sullivan, and he and his wife, Conny, were applauded again when it was noted that they have been married for 60 years.

One corner of the museum is done under the direction of art teacher Leslie Carone and teaching artist Flora Rosefsky. The children went to the train station after school Tuesday to draw what they saw and their work is on view along with photos of the station.

The museum is also displaying a selection of old maps of the town and materials pertaining to the efforts of women to take over farming duties while men were fighting World War I. Horn noted that the museum has a lot of materials in storage and needs more space.

"We really need a house," he said. "We want to be a historical resource for students and for people in the community."

The museum reception included hors d'oeuvres and nonalcoholic cocktails furnished by Catered for You. 

The Centennial celebration will continue on Saturday with festivities at Depot Plaza beginning at 1 p.m. Bedford Town Supervisor Lee Roberts will open the proceedings. The day will include performances or displays by the Bedford Community Theater, Marti Karate School, The Studio, Marc Black, Sam McTavey, Jessica Best, and the Antioch Baptist Church Chancel Choir; a pie baking contest, and open houses at the fire department and library. People can take a historical walking tour of using a tour pamphlet created by the museum.

"It is going to be a great day," said Horn.