Gilboa Historical Society Purchases Grounds

Juried Plays Key Role

GILBOA — After several years of negotiation, the Gilboa Historical Society and the Town of Gilboa have signed a contract transferring ownership of the Gilboa Museum & Nicholas J. Juried History Center from the Town to the Historical Society.

Gilboa Historical Society President Gerry Stoner expressed excitement with the transfer. “This opens up new opportunities for the Museum and the community of Gilboa residents and visitors we serve. We couldn’t be more delighted to start our 2024 season in this way.”

The original 100-year-old building served first as a school-house until the Gilboa Conesville Central School was built. Then it served as Town Hall before becoming a town museum. In 2003, the Town Board asked the newly formed Gilboa Historical Society to create a museum in that old building to preserve town history. This was shortly after the 1996 flood had endangered its historical records and buildings.

With the extraordinary financial support of former resident, Nicholas J. Juried, the Museum expanded in 2015. That expansion renovated the old space and added over 1,500 sq. feet on two floors including a History Center, exhibit space, and a home for the Gilboa Town Historian. Now it passes to the Historical Society with contractual terms that ensure that should the Society dissolve, the building and grounds revert to the Town.

Many small towns have a local history museum founded by residents deeply interested in the natural and cultural history of their town. These labors of love are run by a small-but-committed band of unpaid volunteers. The Gilboa Museum & Nicholas J. Juried History Center is one of these.

Unlike other small, local museums within a thirty-mile radius who focus on two hundred years of history, the Gilboa Museum & Nicholas J. Juried History Center has quite a story to tell. In the mid-1880s, Rev. Dr. Samuel Lockwood discovered the fossilized remains of tree stumps that would later be recognized as evidence of some of the oldest trees on earth—over 380 million years old.

From 1848 to 1915, Gilboa village, part of the larger town of Gilboa, thrived as one of Schoharie County’s largest business centers with farmsteads, houses, churches, shops, schools and industries. But, in 1925, its Gilboa valley was depopulated and flooded to create the Schoharie Reservoir, one of nineteen reservoirs that supply water to New York City.

“We strive to tell the many important stories of our past, Mr. Stoner noted. And now with the transfer of ownership, we look forward to honoring the responsibility the town leadership has placed in us.”