Duo Puts Village History On Display In New Hyde Park
NEW HYDE PARK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – Two women are on a mission to tell the tale of their village on Long Island.
They've spent years collecting memorabilia from families who also have roots in the village and they want everyone to learn from these stories.
"We got all the old pictures of the fire department," said museum Vice President Mildred Tassone.
The images were snapped in 1935.
"This is an album that was stuck up in someone's attic," Tassone added.
There's also an autograph book from 1904 and a now-laminated Long Island Rail Road schedule, which has one of the oldest dates: June 18, 1885.
The more than 100 items are blasts from the pasts and have been donated by locals. They're now being stored inside the museum at New Hyde Park Village Hall.
"It's so interesting to hear the stories from everyone," said Tassone.
For the last five years Tassone and Nowakowski have voluntarily collected other people's family memorabilia from around New Hyde Park, like a firefighter's uniform and a picture of the Olde Trading Post, which still stands today.
They want to use the items to tell the story of how the village came to be.
"My family has been here since at least 1915," Tassone said.
She herself even learned about her family, discovering her grandmother helped form the first PTA in town.
The two are also interviewing longtime village residents. They spend hours a day cataloging the memorabilia, scanning them and posting images online, the organizing the copies into binders and take them to the local library regularly.
"Everyone has their own little story," said Nowakowski. "Some people will speak, some people will not."
But they don't have to, since their memorabilia speaks for them. For more information about the museum, click here.
