ELLENVILLE – At the corner of Canal and Childs Streets stands a majestic 121-year-old Queen Anne Victorian. Known as the Terwilliger House, the home constructed by Alfred Grimley for George Deyo, son of a local lumberman and a descendent of the French Huguenot Duzine (settled in New Paltz in 1675), remained in one Ellenville family until 1927. In the early 1980s, funds were provided by the Resnick family to allow for the purchase of the property, which was dedicated as a local history museum in 1982, and named in honor of town historian Katharine Terwilliger.

But that's not where the story really begins, as many will find out during the Ellenville Public Library & Museum celebration from 1 to 3 p.m. this Saturday, December 10 as the library hosts the museums' 50th anniversary with birthday cake, the unveiling of an1881 Signature Quilt exhibit, and the presence of local historian and first Ellenville Public Library director Marion Dumond.

Dumond will address the deeper history, starting with the Ellenville Library's formation in 1894, after which it moved from one Canal Street space to another for thirty-five years until it found, in 1929, a more permanent residence in the Hunt Memorial Building. There, she has explained, the library was able to grow their collection and being taking in historical artifacts and documents. And there, on December 10, 1966, an Ellenville museum held an opening ceremony with seventy-five in attendance including library board president Benjamin Terwilliger, town historian Katharine Terwilliger, and Dumond.

In 1974, the library moved to its present location at 40 Center Street, leaving the museum back on Liberty Square until, on May 16, 1982, the Terwilliger House was opened to the public as the lasting home for the village museum. Soon after, construction started on the Gallery Link that now connects the library to the museum.

Lynne "Asha" Golliher, the library's outreach librarian, recently noted the evolution of the museum's collections and exhibits, which started with crockery, glass artifacts and various documents including maps, and has since grown a thousand fold to include Channel Master artifacts from antennas to transistor radios, mugs from the area firehouses, and such things as axes made in Napanoch and dishes from Yama Farms. Beyond physical artifacts, though, Golliher explained that the museum collects documents on microfilm, such as local newspapers. There is also a nearly complete yearbook series from the Ellenville Central School District.

The collection at the museum, as well as the library's extensive historic programming, has earned them three awards since 2000 from the Greater Hudson Heritage Network, two in the last five years.

Golliher noted how there's a working collaboration between the library, the museum and other town and county historic agencies, including the creation of curriculum at the Ellenville school district that focuses on regular school tours.

The museum, Golliher added, assists the Wawarsing Knife Museum in their research when requested, and provides information — or a helping hand — to the Ulster County Clerks' office many times over.

"This museum is critical to our identity as a community. Ellenville has always had a key role in the Rondout Valley; we're a cross section of Northeast America, of small rural communities across the country," Golliher said. "History always forms the foundation of a community's future. By having the museum at the public library, where we utilize best practices in terms of archiving, we work hard to not only preserve, but to make available artifacts and documents to residents."

When she first gave tours of the museum, she added, she spouted facts and figures, but later learned the stories behind artifacts, the real stories of the craftsmen that made axes, the shopkeepers that sold dairy products made in Ellenville, and now it's those narratives — that grit of daily life — that she shares with visitors to the museum.

"We tell the true story, even if it's hard," Golliher said."Our community values history, education, community and collaboration."