Thursday, May 7, 2009

Blogging Warwick History


Who found this 1773 English halfpenny long ago in Lewis Park? You'll have to catch up on Warwick blogs to find out!

Once upon a time learning about Warwick history was confined to perusing the standard dusty tomes – fun in itself, but sometimes hard to get the resources. Now a new generation of Warwickians is turning to the web to share memories and do research.

Recently Bob Schmick began his “Hometown Warwick NY” blog (http://hometownwarwick.blogspot.com/) to share information about the Miller farm of his boyhood, which has now been demolished for a shopping center. The blog has grown into a wonderful treasure trove of reminiscences of daily life in our town during the 1940’s and beyond, with interesting side trips down the dirt roads of history. You can see photos of the long-gone rickety bridge over the railroad tracks on Sanfordville Road, see the only existing photos of the John Blain family headstones near Shoprite (some of which have since disappeared), learn what it was like to shop before the mega malls at Middletown and Woodbury, and much more.

Another new blog is Terry Hann’s “Warwick New York Local History” (http://www.warwicknewyorklocalhistory.blogspot.com/ ), which is a continuation of his volunteering for many years transcribing hundreds significant articles on our history from microfilm of our local newspapers, and his research on historic homes in the area. Recent features are the history of the Oakland Theater and the memoirs of the late Roy Vail of New Milford, one of our most treasured historians.

There are a number of other local history blogs and websites, started over the years— Ed Winchester has “Warwick Town Scrapbook” ( http://www.townscrapbook.com/ ),
dedicated to Warwick in the 1940’s and 1950’s – great shots and memories of classmates and the community – and Femi Roecker created “Bellvale School Homepage” (http://www.bellvale.net/ ). Marty Felder’s page on the history of the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway (http://lhr.railfan.net/ ) is also a popular resource.

The Albert Wisner Library hosts “Warwick Valley History” and the “Warwick Heritage Database”, which include historic maps of the town and hundreds of articles on significant events and people—just go to http://www.albertwisnerlibrary.org/ and click on “Local History”. They also have the “Warwick History & Heritage” blog at http://warwickhistory.blogspot.com/ .

There simply isn’t any excuse any more not to know more about the history of your local community— just point and click!

If you know about other local history websites, let us know! Email Sue Gardner at sgardner@rcls.org.

No comments: