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.

Normally the lectures are held in the lower level of the Museum's. Due to COVID, there will be no in person presentations at the Museum at this time. Presentations are now held virtually in partnership with the Fairport Public Library.

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: Psychic Highway: How the Erie Canal Changed America
Presenter: Michael T. Keene

Date: Thursday, April 1, 2021

Time: 11 a.m.

Location: Virtual Program (registration required)        

The Society is pleased to offer this pre-recorded 30-minute presentation from author Michael T. Keene on Thursday, April 1st at 11 a.m. This will be a virtual presentation and registration required. To register, visit Michael T. Keene's website at www.michaeltkeene.com/registration. 

The Erie Canal opened up vital passageways that led to the advent of the major social, political, and religious movements that swept through upstate New York during the 19th century. This powerful waterway carried a flotilla of radicals, visionaries, social reformers, and prophets bent on the idea of creating a new society.

It was as if a bolt of electricity struck Western New York lighting it up as fertile ground for ideas and lifestyles that had never been expressed or attempted before. It delivered people to important places for important reasons, like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott to Seneca Falls for history's first women's convention; to Rochester to meet and support abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Harriett Tubman or to witness the Fox Sisters summon spirits and their eerie knockings. Or maybe people on the temperance bandwagon hurrying to the Burned Over District so Charles Finney could save their souls.

Michael Keene, author and frequent speaker at the Society, has created a unique online program based on his book, Psychic Highway: How the Erie Canal Changed America. Michael’s program is told through the use of archival photographs, original music, and narration. 

To register, visit michaeltkeene.com/registration. Once registered, attendees will receive a link to the presentation. Registrants may watch the recording during its premiere on Thursday, April 1 at 11:00am and re-watch any time after that. The museum gift shop carries a variety of books by the presenter. 

This event is free and is open to the public.

 

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Program: The Story Behind the Most Famous Songs of the Erie Canal
Presenter: Bill Hullfish, PhD
Date: Tuesday, April 20, 2021
Time: 7 p.m. 
Location: Virtual Program (registration required) 

Erie Canal histories in the past 200 years have focused on the planning, construction, engineering, innovation and economic benefits of the canal. What we haven’t heard much about are the songs that tell the people’s history of the canal. Join us as Bill Hullfish reveals the research behind the discovery of famous canal songs and demonstrates the place of canal songs in discovering the everyday lives of the people who worked on the canal. 

Bill Hullfish is professor emeritus SUNY College at Brockport. He is a member of the New York Canal Society and the American Canal Society. Bill has boated, bicycled and walked a large number of American as well as European canals. His publications include: The Canaller's Songbook, The Brockport Murder Dog Trial, and The Erie Canal Sings, plus numerous articles on canalling in journals.

Co-sponsored by the Society and Fairport Public Library. Registration is required through the Fairport Public Library and is limited. To register, visit https://fairportlibrary.libcal.com/event/7621184 or call the library at 585-223-9091.

This event is free and is open to the public.

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Program: Treasures in the Attic: 
A Fascinating Photographic Discovery
Presenter: David J. Whitcomb, Esq.

Date: Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Time: 7 p.m.

Location: Virtual Program (registration required)   

 

Join David Whitcomb for a talk on his incredible find of photos and the equipment appearing to belong to James Ellery Hale, a successful portrait photographer who, in the 1880s, moved to Seneca Falls, New York, where the first women’s rights convention was held in 1848. 

Mr. Whitcomb, a local lawyer who had bought the Geneva, New York, building to expand his practice, pushed an access panel out of the way and poked his head inside. He saw an attic with a vaulted ceiling and crawled in, thinking he might find a few items to sell at a flea market. 

What he discovered transported him back more than a century to an era when suffragists were campaigning for women’s rights and photography portrait studios had started to crop up in American cities.

David J. Whitcomb is the founder/owner of Whitcomb Law Firm, P.C. In addition to his law practice, Mr. Whitcomb is the Assistant City Court Judge for the City of Canandaigua where he handles civil and criminal matters, including evictions for the city court.

This event is free and is open to the public.

Co-sponsored by the Perinton Historical Society and Fairport Public Library. Registration is required through the Fairport Public Library and is limited. 

To register, visit https://fairportlibrary.libcal.com/event/7643809

 

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

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..

Vintage Ice Cream Molds

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.

Historic Tour 2020 - Canceled 

For many of the previous tours go to Historic Tours.

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

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.

 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.