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. The Society has returned 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 closed for the season.

The Museum will resume normal open hours March 5, 2022.

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:

Masks will be required for all program attendees regardless of vaccination status.

Events and Programs for 2022:

Program: Little Ambassadors: the Kodakids of World War II
Presenter: Mary Jo Lanphear, Brighton Town Historian
Date: Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Fairport Public Library Community Room

The Society is pleased to welcome Mary Jo Lanphear as she discusses Little Ambassadors: The Kodakids of World War II. This program is co-sponsored by the Fairport Public Library and will take place at the library on Tuesday, January 18 at 7 p.m.

Imagine leaving home as a child and spending the next five years with strangers in another country. Over 1,300 children between the ages of five and fifteen did just that during World War II and 156 of them stayed in the Rochester area. Dubbed the “Kodakids,” they were the children of employees at Kodak’s Harrow, England plant.

The “Duchess of Athol” arrived on August 24, 1940, at Montreal. Transferred to railroad cars, the children rode from Montreal to Brighton to their American adventure. “Little Ambassadors: the Kodakids of World War II” details their sojourn with Rochester-area families until war’s end in 1945.

Mary Jo Lanphear has been the town of Brighton Historian since 1986. Her position includes researching topics of Brighton history, presenting public talks, working with school children, and assisting town staff with projects. She serves as staff adviser to the town’s Historic Preservation Commission and has participated in the decision to designate over seventy landmarks in Brighton. Currently she is volunteering as a transcriber of historic correspondence in the collection of the U. of R. Rare Books Dept.

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/8141809 or call the library at 585-223-9091

Masks will be required for all program attendees regardless of vaccination status.

 

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Volunteer Program: TBD
Presenter: TBD
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022
Time: 10 a.m.
Location: Virtual

This event is for the Fairport Historic Museum volunteers. Information about logging on to the Zoom session will be sent to those volunteers. 

If you are interested in volunteering at the Museum, contact our Museum Director at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

 

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Program: Historic U.S. Route 20 Tour 
Presenters: Rob & Carole Lillis 
Date: Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022 
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Fairport Museum

Most people in the Rochester/Finger Lakes area call it “5 and 20” because US 20 and New York Route 5 are combined, but only from Auburn to Avon. Route 20 is actually the longest road in the United States and the seventh longest road in the world. It runs 3,365 miles (nearly 1,000 miles longer than famous Route 66) through 12 states and through big cities, small towns, farmland, deserts and mountains. 

Parts of Route 20 follow the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, and the Mormon Trail. Freeport, Illinois, on Route 20, is the site of the famous debate between Abraham Lincoln and Canandaigua Academy alumnus Stephen A. Douglas. Closer to home, Route 20 passes through Seneca Falls, home of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park on the site of the first Women’s Rights Convention held in 1848. 

In 2013, Canandaigua residents Rob and Carole Lillis drove their vintage MG roadster the entire length of US 20 from Boston to Newport, Oregon. Along the way, they visited historic sites and met incredible people with wonderful stories. Rob and Carole will share their adventures and the trip through history they experienced on the trip.

Rob Lillis provides planning, research, and evaluation consulting to school and community-based youth development programs through Evalumetrics Research. Carole recently retired from Keuka College where she taught English and writing for 25 years. They are avid vintage British car enthusiasts and have participated in numerous rallies and historic tours.

Masks are required for all program attendees regardless of vaccination status.

 

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Volunteer Program: Orientation
Presenter: Vicki Profitt
Date: Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022
Time: 10 a.m.
Location: Fairport Museum

This event is for the Fairport Historic Museum volunteers. Information about logging on to the Zoom session will be sent to those volunteers. 

If you are interested in volunteering at the Museum, contact our Museum Director at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Masks are required for all attendees regardless of vaccination status.

 

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Program: The Spirit Rooms of Lily Dale
Presenter: Members of the Lily Dale Assembly
Date: Tuesday, March 15, 2022 
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Fairport Museum

The Lily Dale Assembly, Woman's Day Committee is pleased to bring an evening of entertainment that will enlighten you about how women's rights and spiritualism came together in the little town that is Lily Dale, New York. Historical photographs, newspaper clippings, re-enactments, interviews, and voice-overs bring to life the work of these important women and entertain you with scenes of us imagining them at séances and mediumship readings.

There are feature scenes with the founders of modern Spiritualism Kate and Maggie Fox and how their lives helped shape a religion where women were automatically considered equal. We also show Susan B. Anthony and her well-documented time in Lily Dale and what experiences she had at a seance on the grounds. Much to the surprise of many, we also feature Hollywood's original blonde bombshell Mae West and her special friendship and time with Lily Dale medium, Jack Kelly. 

This film is brought to you in part by Action and Vision grants from Humanities NY, NY State Opportunities, Council on the Arts, and decentralized arts grant through Tri-County Arts council in Olean, NY. 

Masks are required for all program attendees regardless of vaccination status.

 

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Program: Lost Architects of Rochester
Presenter: Cynthia Howk
Date: Tuesday, April19, 2022
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Fairport Museum

There will be more information available on this program at a later date.

Masks are required for all program attendees regardless of vaccination status.

 

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Program: Tour of White Haven Cemetery
Presenter: Vicki Profitt
Date: Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Virtual

There will be more information available on this program at a later date.

 

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Program: Member Open House
Presenters: TBD
Date: Tuesday,  June 21, 2022
Time: 6 - 8 p.m.
Location: Fairport Museum

There will be more information available on this program at a later date.

Masks are required for all program attendees regardless of vaccination status.

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.

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

The House Tour Committee is produced a virtual tour of six homes and gardens located throughout Perinton. Videographer Noah Lucia of Sidekick Films helped 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 worked with Noah to integrate information on the architecture and history of the homes. The result wasl a tour  members could enjoy on their computer in the comfort and safety of their home.

The Virtual House Tour 2021 was the first for the Society. 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.

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

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

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.