Events

The Society has many events throughout the year; History Presentations and Author Appearances, Special Exhibits, Historical Tours of various types, and Board of Trustee and Committee Meetings. Please see the calendar and below for more information.

History Presentations and Author Appearances

We sponsor lectures and presentations featuring stimulating local and regional speakers. These programs are monthly during the year starting in September and running through May and usually take place on the third Tuesday of the month at 7:00 p.m.

Lectures are held in the lower level of the Museum. Starting in September 2o21, the Society will return to in-person programming at the Fairport Historical Museum for the first time since February 2020.

Membership dues and donations allow for the continuation of exhibits, monthly programs and historic tours.

Museum hours can be viewed on the Calendar .

Museum is OPEN!

The Fairport Museum highlights the history of the town of Perinton and the village of Fairport from its early days.

Events and Programs for 2021:

Program: The Seven Cs of Fairport
Presenter: Don Shilling
Date: Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Fairport Museum

On Tuesday, September 21st at 7:00 p.m., attendees can commit themselves to an unusual evening of colorful electronic slides documenting the curious conclusion that Fairport can boast of counting at least seven Cs in its community’s citizen names, its churches, commercial buildings and their consumable products both today, and in the past century. Please come and comment!

Fairport native and retired educator Donovan A. Shilling is the author of more than a dozen books about local history, including A Towpath Tale and They Put Rochester on the Map.

The presentation is free and open to the publlic.

Program: Homes & Gardens Virtual House Tour - 2021
Presenter: Narrator - Bill Poray
Date: The month of October - online viewing from your own computer
Tuesday, October 19 at 7 p.m. & Sunday, October 24 at 2 p.m. in the Museum
Location: Virtual & Museum

The House Tour Committee is planning a virtual tour of six homes and gardens located throughout Perinton. Videographer Noah Lucia of Sidekick Films will help the committee showcase these homes by recording the exteriors, some gardens, and a few interiors.

A graceful arch welcomes guests to a Loud Road home.

The committee is working with Noah to integrate information on the architecture and history of the homes. The result will be a tour the Society members can enjoy on their computer in the comfort and safety of their home.

The tour promises many surprises: views from a drone, a peek into the Underground Railroad, and lovely garden flowers so close you can almost smell them. The tour will be available for viewing early in October. For members without computers or with access issues, the tour can be viewed at the museum.

The Virtual House Tour 2021 is a first or the Society, and the committee is excited to venture into this new format. The COVID pandemic has prompted all of us to find new ways to do many things out of a concern for safety. This virtual tour is one of them.

The House Tour is a membership only event available for online viewing during the entire month of October.

Members will receive a link to the tour in September. For members without online access, the tour will be shown at the Museum on Tuesday, October 19, 7 p.m. and on Sunday, October 24, 2 p.m.

To learn how to become a member go to the Membership page.

For more information about this years tour, go to the Homes & Garden Virtual House Tour - 2021 page.

Special Exhibits

Admission to the Fairport Historical Museum and parking is free. Membership dues and donations allow for the continuation of exhibits, monthly programs and historic tours. Museum hours can be viewed on the calendar.

All exhibits are free during regular museum hours.

Admssion to the Museum is free and open to the public.

2021 Exhibits:

Stop by to see our new exhibits - agriculture, A Centennial of Perinton Town Historians and Perinton in the Pandemic.

Agriculture

Our newly remodeled agriculture exhibit features information about the 11 century farms and sections on blacksmiths, coopers and tinsmiths.

A Centennial of Perinton Town Historians

2021 is the centennial of Perinton Town Historians. Learn about the six historians that have held the position in the last 100 years.

Perinton in the Pandemic

The perspectives of many in our community coping with this challenge are included in a notebook now on display at the Museum: The Impact of the 2020– 2021 Coronavirus Pandemic on Fairport and Perinton.

This collection of reflections, text and photos, is the work of a PHS committee capturing an array of experiences from adults and youth, the village of Fairport, the town of Perinton and local organizations and businesses.

Our Capturing Today's History for Tomorrow committee has been gathering photos and information about life in the pandemic. Send your contributions to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Fairport’s Evolving Landscape

A new notebook on display is Fairport’s Evolving Landscape, photos and articles on recent developments in the village. This work in progress includes the lift bridge renovation, improvements to the banks of the canal, the train viewing platform, housing developments, and the latest addition, the remote-control car track on Cobb’s Lane.

Vintage Ice Cream Molds

IceCreamMolds 4 190706 Ice cream is a favorite summer treat that has been around for many years. In the late 1800s through the 1950s, it was customary to use pewter molds to sculpt ice cream into various shapes. The ice cream would be poured into the molds, frozen and then served at restaurants and in private homes, to the delight of the guests.

The two companies that created the majority of the molds were Eppelsheimer & Co. and Schall & Co., both of New York. They are represented in this collection with “E. & Co.” and “S. & Co.” marks, along with catalog numbers that were imprinted into many of the molds. Over 500 different shapes were available for purchase.

Vintage ice cream molds are now used for decorative purposes only, due to the lead content in the pewter.

This collection of 50 molds was donated to the Society by Juliet Miller Moynihan in 2019. The molds had belonged to her uncle, David Starr Jordan (1921-1990), a Fairport attorney who had delighted in accumulating a substantial number of these unique items.

Virtual House Tour - 2021
A View of Perinton’s Homes and Gardens

The House Tour Committee is planning a virtual tour of six homes and gardens located throughout Perinton. Videographer Noah Lucia of Sidekick Films will help the committee showcase these homes by recording the exteriors, some gardens, and a few interiors.

A graceful arch welcomes guests to a Loud Road home.

The committee is working with Noah to integrate information on the architecture and history of the homes. The result will be a tour PHS members can enjoy on their computer in the comfort and safety of their home.

Stay tuned for more details and, rest assured, that actual house tours will return.

For many of the previous tours go to Historic Tours.

Historic Tour - 2020 - Canceled

Historic Tour - 2019
House Tour Goes West - West x West x Woodlawn

westst29v2ddfritsch2010web Some of the street names have changed, but many of the vintage homes constructed on them still remain the treasures they have always been. This year’s house tour was Sun., Sept. 29, that features homes on three streets on the north side of Church Street: West Avenue, West Street, and Woodlawn Avenue.

West Avenue used to be called Cherry Street, because of the extensive cherry orchards at the site of what is now Packett’s Glen. The east end of the street was once a mixture of commercial and residential buildings. The street originally went from Main Street to West Street, was later extended just beyond Cole Street, and finally to Nelson Street.

This Queen Anne is the home of Ellen Stoll Walsh and is at 29 West Street.

West Street is one of the earliest streets in the village of Fairport, with many homes built between 1852 and 1872. Two main landowners were Martin Wood, who owned property on the west side of the West Street, and Omar Wilcox, who owned much of the property on the east side.

WestSt30v1CAngevine2009 Woodlawn Avenue, once named Woodland Avenue, was part of property owned by Martin Wood, a Fairport farmer who owned six acres called Woodland Farms. The street was originally named after the farm.

Many of the houses on these streets were already built by 1899 and have been beautifully preserved. One of them, the Conant - Boyland House & Carriage Barn at 30 West Street, shown on the right, has been designated local landmark by the Fairport Historic Preservation Commission and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Thank you to all who worked on thw tour and special thank you to the home owners who opened their homes to us.

For more information about the tour visit West X West X Woodlawn Tour - 2019.

For many of the previous tours go to Historic Tours.