Spencer Historical Society

Tonight's monthly meeting of the Spencer Historical Society will be held at 7:00 p.m. at the museum, 22 Center St. New members welcome, please join us.

It’s Spring and we’re back! The Spencer Museum will be open on weekends beginning Memorial Weekend, Saturday, May 28, 2022. We are open each weekend through Labor Day, on Saturdays and Sundays 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ... We have several programs and new museum displays scheduled for this year. Keep your eye out for our newsletter coming to your mailbox shortly. All dates and times for our programs will also be posted on this page. Here is our schedule for May: May 7th (Sat) 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. cleanup inside museum May 14th (Sat)10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. cleanup outside museum May 16th (Mon) Monthly meeting of the Spencer Historical Society 7:00 p.m. ** May 28th (Sat) Museum opening day!! **The monthly meeting for the Spencer Historical Society is held the 3rd Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m. We meet at the museum in the warm months and the Spencer Town Hall in the winter. Meeting location updates and any changes to meeting dates/times will be posted on this FB page. WE WELCOME NEW MEMBERS AND DOCENTS!!

Coming in July compliments of The Spencer Historical Society.

Extending our gratitude to everyone who helped to make our "Haunted Night at the Museum" on Halloween a screaming success, Our members, volunteers, and the S-VE P.A.V.E. program spent hours transforming the floor into haunted halls and a "bloody harvest." Our volunteer actors were amazing and enough candy was donated for leftovers - a HUGE thank you to the many people who brought us bags leading up to the big night. Despite the rain, we had a great turnout of ghosts and ghouls...thank you all for another spook-tacular season at the Museum!

Our ghoulish volunteers have been working hard setting up a wicked walkthrough at the Museum all week so brave the rain and attend the bloody harvest tonight from 6-8...mind your head.

Preparations are underway for our Haunted Halloween Walk-Through this week...we have lots of volunteers willing to participate but are in need of candy donations for our expectant trick-or-treaters. If you have the means, please consider donating a bag or two for our event...donations may be dropped off at the Museum between now and Thursday. Please message this account or email [email protected] so we can assure someone will be there to receive them. Thank you all so much for your continued support and interest in our efforts to provide community programming aimed at preserving and sharing Spencer's past for the future.

Nichols Monument, Evergreen Cemetery, Spencer NY.

The first internment in what would become Evergreen Cemetery was that of the 6 year old daughter of John Avery Nichols in 1858. Nichols immediately set aside land from his estate, which spanned the area from his house on West Tioga, to Liberty St., for the purpose of establishing a large community burial ground to fit the needs of a growing town. The Evergreen Cemetery Association filed articles of Incorporation on October 27th, 1864. The trustees were: John A. Nichols, Isaac... Stanclift, Robert Fisher, Isaac Lott, Charles Fisher, and H.S. Hall. . The original lot was four acres and six more were later added from the Old Campground (the area near the flagpole in the current cemetery). . #spencerhistory #spencerhistoricalsociety #evergreencemetery #cemeteryhistory #nicholspark #nineteenthcentury #tiogacounty #tiogacountyhistory

Thank you to all who came out to our Annual Meeting at the Town Hall tonight..Wayne Meyers gave an excellent presentation on the history of brick manufacturing and exchange in our area. Refreshments provided by board members were enjoyed by all afterwards.

Apologies for not posting much lately, but that’s because I’ve been SO busy working on research and projects like collaborating with S-VE’s after school P.A.V.E. program introducing students to Spencer’s long and rich history. This week we learned about Spencer’s namesake, the legend of Pumpkin Hook, and how Main Street used to look! . #spencerhistory #spencertownhistorian #spencermuseum #museumwork #educationcollaboration #teach #upstatenyhistory #tiogacounty #tiogacountyhistory #localhistory #sveschool

The SVE FFA will be hosting Goat Yoga on Saturday, October 12th! To reserve your spot, please email Megan Golden at [email protected]!

Yesterday Marvin Fisher II took me on a tour of the oldest remaining commercial structure in the village of Spencer - the two story M.D. Fisher building on the Four Corners. . Marvin (M.D.) Fisher was a businessman and gentleman farmer who kept a horse stable known throughout the country on the flat farmland immediately south of the village. After his father’s wooden store building burned in 1877, M.D. quickly rebuilt a brick building on the same site. The south half was a...dded in 1884 and the east section was added in 1893 to meet increasing trade demands. It was known as The Big Store." . An article from the 1891 Spencer Needle described the first floor layout as a double store with two large show rooms separated by a partition, and the elevated seat of the cashier’s desk situated under an archway in the back. Marv told me that when there was a clothing and shoe store downstairs he and his friends used to push each other back and forth on the narrow shoebox shelving ladder. . The second floor is composed of several large rooms with incredibly tall ceilings and devoted to the sale of carpets, oilcloths and rugs, another to stoves, and another for ready-made clothing. M.D.’s son, Dr. Max Fisher kept an office on the south side (his door is now used for the downstairs conference room). . Farmer’s and Merchants Bank was founded in 1884 under the leadership of M.D. His sons Myron and Henry came into the mercantile business in 1895 while their father ran the bank business. In 1917, Myron went to work at the bank and the dry goods store continued operation under his sister Sadie and her husband George Jones, the local pharmacist. Myron and Henry both served as postmasters, eventually earning Spencer 2nd class recognition in 1935. They died just four days apart in April, 1948. . Elgin Possinger purchased the North section from Sadie in 1945 and it became Jean’s Department Store, later Strauss’s Discount. The South side was purchased by J.J. Swartout in 1949. His stock was sold out in 1961 and it was bought and used by NAPA auto parts from 1973-1994. It was repurchased by the Fisher family, remodeled, and is now used by Tioga State Bank as its business office. @ Spencer, New York See more