Views from the Hill: Stories from the Valley stories told by Bill Gordh and Jonathan Kruk
Take a Folktale Tour of the Akin Free Library with banjoist Bill Gordh, Saturday Sept 16, first tour begin at 12 noon. The second tour at 3pm. Explore the unique Natural History collection, the Quaker artifacts from long ago and the Library itself.
There is no charge to attend.
Listen to stories of Revolutionaries, Rent Wars and Quakers – Stories of the Valley, Saturday Sept 23, told by Jonathan Kruk. There will be two performances 12 noon and 3 pm. outside the Library. Stories will include the history of Pawling, the Quaker Hill community, the Meeting House serving as a hospital, freeing slaves before the Revolutionary War, the luxurious Mizzen Top Hotel and the Oblong Treaty.
Location: Akin Free Library, 378 Old Quaker Hill Road, Pawling, NY
The Akin Hall Association in Pawling received $2,000 for a project grant to finance a pair of storytelling programs at the Akin Library.
“In a world dominated by social media, storytelling is a powerful way to teach history and build community understanding and tolerance,” said Matthew Hogan, Executive Director for the Akin Free Library who organized the project. “These programs will support the Akin Free Library’s goal of exposing the history of the area, of bringing people to the Library who are not aware of what it has to offer to people of all ages.”
Founded in 1880, the Akin Hall Association maintains the Akin Free Library (built in 1898) which houses the Gunnison Museum of Natural History and the Historical Society Museum. The Association is the major grantor of annual college scholarships to Pawling High School students.
The building, an elegant late Victorian stone structure sited on Pawling’s Quaker Hill holds the Olive Gunnison Natural History Museum, Historical Society Museum and the Akin Library. Once a public library and a community center, it was placed on the National Historic Register in 1991.
This project is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by Arts Mid-Hudson.
