Waterville Historical Society

06/03/2026

Another wonderful night for the community! Come and partake!

The Summer Solstice Celebration is coming right up, and the fun keeps coming!
Touch a Truck will also take place from 7 - 8 pm!

If you'd like to add a truck, tractor, or cool vehicle, get in touch! Just be sure you're either comfortable with kids exploring it or able to stay with it to tell kids about it. And by kids, we mean kids of all ages and kids at heart. Requests have come to see the inside of a camper and a food truck... because you never know what sparks curiosity!

Plus, the Waterville Historical Society will be hosting a program at the Historical Society about Morgan's Hardware with Tom Morgan from 7-8 pm. For those of you interested, you can start there and come on over to the library lawns for the rest of the evening.

06/03/2026

DadFest is back on Sunday June 21st in Washington Park with a massive Classic Car show presented by ParkAlbany, expanded Food & Craft vendors, a family friendly Market32 Cares Kid Zone & non-stop live music all day on TWO STAGES, thanks to our presenting sponsors KeyBank & PYX 106 🤩

Enjoy live performances from Whatsername (A Tribute to Green Day), Run Rabbit Run (A Tribute to Pink Floyd), Doc Horton and the Jay Street Band, Lucid Street, Erica Rose, Sydney Worthley & Albany Rock Pit 😎 This event is FREE to attend and suitable for all ages.

06/03/2026

The Waterville Historical Society will host its annual membership meeting with elections on Thursday, June 18th at 6:30 p.m. A public program on Morgan's Hardware by Tom Morgan will follow at 7 p.m. Morgan's Hardware is an iconic Waterville business. Come learn about its history from Tom Morgan, a third generation of Morgan's to operate this long-standing business. All are welcome to attend the program. The annual business meeting will precede Tom's presentation and will be brief. Members are encouraged to attend to elect officers and vacant board seats. Members interested in joining the board should reach out to Laurie Fuess, Secretary, at [email protected].

Waterville Historical Society is located at 220 E. Main Street, Waterville, NY. Parking is located at the rear of the building adjacent to the Waterville Fire Department. The building is handicapped accessible.

05/28/2026

Save the date for this event! More details to follow!🇺🇸

05/24/2026

"The old Mill Pond dam on Big Creek, just north of Waterville, behind the Nolan and Decker properties" — PsBrown 11/10/83

Photographed April 2026

05/23/2026

A few days ago, we returned to Big Creek to take more pictures of the old mill pond dam for an upcoming post. The caption of that post would have been about the mill industry in Waterville, the fate of early flood victims Justus Tower and John Williams, and the importance of photographing historic landmarks before it's too late.

We would have talked about the events that occurred on this spot 222 years ago, which, according to the 1804 newspaper clipping we shared in our recent post, was once the site of (at least) two dams, both of which were washed away in the flood. Justus Tower's dam is long gone, but stood somewhere behind his house (extant at 175 Buell Ave), meaning that the dam of John Williams, which was a little upstream, once stood near this spot. We would have offered a plea for preservation, perhaps by reconstructing pieces of the dam somewhere else as a monument to the water of Waterville and the industries that utilized its power, or by repurposing the stones within the upper part of Big Creek along the proposed new community center (an idea suggested last year). We would have pondered whether or not these stones are (were?) the same stones placed here after the dams were rebuilt in May 1804.

We regret that we returned a few days too late, and instead offer these photos of where the dam used to be.

(We took some more photos last month which we will share tomorrow.)

05/19/2026

https://www.burgessandtedescofuneralhomes.com/obituaries/Joseph-W-Falk?obId=48428762

Joe was the president of the Waterville Historical Society for 20 years and was instrumental in acquiring our building on Main Street to house our museum. He will be missed.

View Joseph W. Falk's obituary, contribute to their memorial, see their funeral service details, and more.

05/15/2026

Mark Mowrey, who has been working in various forests for years gave a great presentation on the Trees of Waterville on Wednesday evening at the Historical Society.

05/13/2026

Reminder: Tonight at 7 pm Mark Mowrey speaks on the Trees of Waterville. Refreshments will be served.