After the Blauvelt House Exhibit Closes: Where New City's 250th Year Goes This November and December

Sunday, October 25 was the last listed day for two things on Zukor Road. The Historical Society of Rockland County's 250th-anniversary exhibition ended its run that day, and so did the docent-led Sunday tours of the Jacob Blauvelt House. The anniversary year keeps going in New City. Through November and December it moves between two buildings, and the story changes with the building. In November the Revolution goes to New City Library for eleven days. In December the Blauvelt House goes back to the 1830s, the decade it was built.

Clarkstown held its big public celebration in July. Fireworks on July 1 and a patriotic drone show with the West Point Band on July 9 were the town's headline America 250 events. The fall and early winter programs are smaller, indoors, and mostly need a reservation. They're also more specific to Rockland County.

What Ran at Zukor Road Through October 25

The Historical Society of Rockland County is based on a four-acre site in New City with a history museum and the 1832 Jacob Blauvelt House. This year's History Center exhibition, "Rockland in the Revolution," was open Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday afternoons from noon to 4 p.m. Admission was $7 for adults and $3 for children.

According to the exhibition page, the show covered the Orangetown Resolutions, Rockland's strategic role in the war, and the work of local historians. Its displays included a collage tying together Stony Point, Rochambeau and André, plus a large Erskine map. The Society's own pages give two different opening dates, April 26 and April 29, but both list October 25 as the end.

The Blauvelt House tours ran alongside the exhibition, on Sunday afternoons at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. from May 3 through October 25. With both finished, the Revolution story leaves Zukor Road for the rest of the year. The Society's administrative office stays open Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., all year.

A Pearl River Luncheon Honors a Nanuet Bakery

The Society's next public date was away from New City. Its Rockland Revolution 250 Luncheon is Sunday, November 1, from 1 to 4 p.m. at O'Grady's Castle, 285 Blue Hill Drive in Pearl River, and the event page lists it as sold out.

The honorees are the reason to mention it. Eileen O'Brien and Jose Cardona of West Nyack get the Lifetime Service Award. Carl Wright of Sloatsburg gets the Living Landmark Award. The Business Landmark Award goes to the Battaglia family and Rockland Bakery of Nanuet. A county historical society marking the 250th year of a revolution chose to give one of its awards to a working bakery a few miles from New City. That fits the way the Society approaches history. Two weeks later, the Revolution itself shows up on South Main Street.

Eleven Days of the Revolution in the High Tor Room

From November 13 through November 23, New City Library's High Tor room holds a state traveling exhibit called "Revisit the Revolution." The library's calendar lists it from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It brings 21 objects from the historic collections of New York State Parks and Historic Sites, banners from the state's "The Revolution Across New York" exhibition, and an interactive digital display.

The library's description takes a wider view than the Zukor Road show did. It covers the war's eight years across New York, the key battles, contradictions around freedom, and the cost of the war seen through people often left out of American history. The Historical Society's exhibition looked at Rockland. This one looks at the whole state. The library lists it for children, teens, adults and families.

Two scheduled programs use the exhibit:

• "Revisit the Revolution for Kids!" is a guided walk through the traveling exhibit for ages 5 to 12, on Friday, November 20, from 4 to 4:45 p.m. Registration is required.
• "Women Writers of the American Revolution" is Tuesday, November 24, from 2 to 3:15 p.m. in High Tor. Veronica Reynolds discusses writers of the period, including the poet Phillis Wheatley Peters. Registration is required.

The talk on November 24 comes the day after the exhibit's listed last day, so families who want to see the objects with an adult program afterward should plan on two separate visits.

The library calendar, late October through November

On the day this post runs, voting in the Character Elections is still open. It closes at 9 p.m. on November 3. The Charlie Brown program on November 19 falls the afternoon before the kids' exhibit tour, so a family could visit the library on back-to-back afternoons that week.

A Farmhouse Built 49 Years After the War

In December the anniversary year heads back to Zukor Road, and the story jumps forward half a century. The Jacob Blauvelt House dates to 1832, 49 years after the Revolutionary War ended in 1783. Its December programs are about the household traditions of that later period and have nothing to do with battles or resolutions.

The first is the Society's St. Nicholas Day at the Blauvelt House on Saturday and Sunday, December 5 and 6. Sessions start at 10:30 a.m., noon, 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m., and admission is $5 per person. The program includes Dutch customs, treats, stories, refreshments, and a visit with St. Nicholas and his horse.

Next come the Holiday Candlelight Tours. The farmhouse is lit with candles and lanterns, decorated with greenery, and filled with traditional sweets, and visitors experience Dutch American holiday customs of the 1830s with nineteenth-century music, song and seasonal refreshments. The basics, from the Society's page:

1. Saturday, December 12: tours at 5, 6 and 7 p.m.
2. Sunday, December 13: tours at 5 and 6:15 p.m.
3. A third date: tours at 5, 6 and 7 p.m. The page's heading lists Saturday, December 19. Its schedule lists December 20, which falls on a Sunday this year. Check the date with the Society before booking.

Each tour runs 40 minutes. Tickets are $15 for adults who aren't Society members, $10 for members and seniors, and $5 for children. Children 5 and under are free but must be carried inside the historic house. Prepaid reservations are required, space is limited, and groups of 10 to 15 can be arranged ahead of time.

A reservation also covers admission to the Society's 50th Annual Holiday Exhibition. Fifty years of holiday exhibitions means a tradition on Zukor Road that started long before this anniversary year and will keep going after it. The tour page doesn't say yet what this year's exhibition will include. The Society can be reached at (845) 634-9629 or [email protected].

How the Two Buildings Split the Season

In order: the Revolution exhibit on Zukor Road closed October 25. The Society's luncheon in Pearl River on November 1 honors a Nanuet bakery along with two lifetime volunteers and a living landmark. The state's Revolution objects are at New City Library from November 13 to 23. Starting December 5, the Blauvelt House is back to its own era, which is St. Nicholas, candlelight and 1830s farm customs. The library programs and the candlelight tours all need advance registration or prepaid tickets. St. Nicholas Day has four time slots on each of its two days.

For a household in New City, that adds up to three trips across the season. The first is a weekday or weekend afternoon in the High Tor room before November 23. If there are kids, the second can be the guided tour on November 20. The third is an evening in December at a farmhouse that was built two generations after the war this whole year has been marking.

I'm Christine Naber, and I love helping people get to know the places that make a community feel like home, from a library's back room to an 1832 farmhouse on Zukor Road. If you're thinking about life in New City or anywhere else in Rockland, or you just want to talk about what's going on locally this season, I'm happy to listen. Let's Connect.