Growing Calendar

Greetings from the Seed Library. It's time to start your seeds, if you already haven't! The Seed Library has some amazing and unusual organic, heirloom varieties ... and they are FREE. Stop by The Depauville Free Library (315-686-3299) and take some home. Please like our page and share this with your gardening friends!

NNYCF Matching Grant - Donations

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Enjoy Depauville Library events on YouTube ...

Local history, musical performances, poets, and storytellers.

Award-winning storyteller Regi Carpenter

Performs her tale, Snap!

August 22, 2013

www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-V4Pzm2ctI

Ken Knapp on the Archaeology of the 1000 Islands

"The First Boat People"

Presented in two parts.

April 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT5mWVB0pRU&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EKYhtC857w&feature=youtu.be

"Ancient Man in the Thousand Islands"

May 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4YEJAYJ6v8&feature=share

"A Tour of Grindstone Island in the Footsteps of the First People"

Featuring the Grindstone Island arrowhead collection of Will Salisbury.

2019 International Archaeology Day

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i3OJri-POc&t=6s&fbclid=IwAR1VczZ0-jDLbcfQXJ4jwc7hGee08q0RqUkpuy6WQFp8UkznxPJ_2IwzBrI

Dean Wilkie on the History of Depauville

The History of the Depauville Theater Curtain

Presented in two parts.

October 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sinGXzu_Zo0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XF9on7fAuk

The Depauville Theater Curtain Revisited

September 2011

http://youtu.be/ICQa58kq7w4

Guitarist Gary Walts

Gary Walts playing Fernando Sor Study #2 from Segovia Edition

August 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ERH0n3Z-o

Other events can be found at www.youtube.com/user/DepauvilleLibrary

Stargazers Wanted!

Depauville Free Library is working with local, sidewalk astronomer, Tom Aiken, to organize looks into the night sky.

We are asking that interested stargazers send their email addresses to deplib@ncls.org so we can send out word when and where Tom will be setting up his telescope. Since good observations depend upon good weather conditions, emails are the best way to organize a star party at a moments notice.

Tom Aiken and his Dobsonian telescope that took him 20 years to build, have logged many hours introducing people to celestial wonders. The telescope uses a mirrored system as opposed to lenses and is designed to be portable and with a large aperture. It’s good for observing dim, deep sky objects, like the belts, the rings, around Saturn and the moons circling around the planets.

Set up like a gun turret, with a simple mount that rotates vertically and horizontially, the Dobsonian telescope, first created by John Dobson in the 1960s, allows side-to-side motion to vary the azimuth or compass bearing in any direction and up-and-down flexibility to vary the altitude or angle of elevation of the insturment.

You can bring your own telescope or binochulars, too. Which ever you decide, the following are some of the highlights we hope to observe in the upcoming year.

Personalized Computer Classes @ Depauville Library

Computer skills are very important in today’s world and Depauville Free Library is offering training sessions for anyone interested in operating a computer or exploring the Internet. Whether you are working on your resume or still trying to find the "on/off" switch, these training sessions can give you the help you need.

Instruction is free and will be one-on-one or one-on-two, (so you won’t have to go it alone!) and the sessions will be scheduled to accommodate your day as long as they fall within library hours.

Training will be tailored to what you want to learn: computer basics, Microsoft Word, introduction to using the Internet, searching the Internet, email, handling digital photos, writing a resume, online job searching, social network basics, as well as online library services like reference and ebooks.

Please call the Depauville Library at 686-3299 to find out more about the classes we are offering and to set up a time.

“The Changing Years A History of Depauville”

“The Changing Years A History of Depauville” was first researched, written, and printed in 1976 by members of the Depauville Bicentennial Committee wishing to celebrate the important milestone with a project that would be a legacy to future generations.

The material submitted far exceeded their expectations. In addition to strictly historical information, it included accounts of numerous heart-warming moments and human-interest incidents in the lives of Depauville residents, past and present.

The 1976 book was compiled from early records of churches and organizations, wills, deeds, obituaries, census records, and diaries. Old scrapbooks revealed a wealth of information and recollections of older Depauville residents provided tremendous help in regard to the history of local buildings.

In 2004, responding to continued interest and demand for the hamlet’s history and with copies of the 1976 book no longer available, “The Changing Years”, was reprinted. The original manuscript was kept unchanged but an addendum was added covering the years 1975 to 2000.

Copies of “The Changing Years A History of Depauville” can be purchased for $15. They are available at the Depauville Free Library, 32333 County Route 179, Depauville, NY 13632. For further ordering information please call 315-686-3299 or email, deplib@ncls.org.

Models of Depauville's Historic Buildings

Beautiful and finely detailed models of Depauville landmarks have been donated to the Community Center and are now on display at the Library.

Jan Debevic (born Janice Exford) has graciously donated models of the Methodist Church, the Old Stone School, and the MacFarlane Building. Over the years her friend, George Frank, a Methodist minister and railroad buff, skillfully constructed these buildings, as well as a model of Jan’s home in the hamlet. After the recent fire that destroyed the MacFarlane Building, Jan thought the models would be better kept here in Depauville and we are grateful for her generosity.

Generosity has also brought us a model of the Old Stone Church. Made on a larger scale, the model not only captures the outside of the church but accurately shows the building's interior. Viva Fauteux (born Viva Ward) grew up on Grindstone but lived for a time in the hamlet and has donated her replica of the landmark to the community. Since the church no longer holds services, it is an amazing time capsule of Depauville history and a wonderful gift to share.

Preserving Depauville History

Click on this image to see a slide show of the restoration process undertaken for the theater curtain and the signature quilt.

The large cotton canvas theater curtain, dating from the early 1900s, originally hung on the stage of the old Depauville Town Hall. Decorated with colorful advertising of area businesses, it is also referred to as an "advertising drape". The reverse side is inscribed and dated by many local performers who graced the Town Hall's stage. When the Town Hall was sold and the stage converted to cubby storage, the library inherited the curtain, where, for many years it lanquished, nailed to a wall, in a state of deterioration. Placed in the storage shed for safe keeping when work to renovate the library began, the curtain luckily survived the library fire in 2007, and, through a grant from the Greater Hudson Heritage Network was restored by West Lake Conservators of Skaneateles, NY, the same group that repaired the 1903 Signature Quilt that now hangs in the library.

The quilt and theater curtain are cherished centerpieces of a collection of local history in the library that illustrate the rich and lively heritage of our community at the turn of the twentieth century.

1903 Signature Quilt on Display

This classic hand pieced and hand quilted signature quilt, made in Depauville in 1903, had been rolled and off display at the time of the September, 2007 fire that caused structural damage to the Depauville Free Library and destroyed all of the library's books.

Unfortunately the quilt did not escape the fire unscathed. It was burned and sustained smoke and water damage and mildew set in before the quilt received professional attention from West Lake Conservators, Ltd, of Skaneateles, NY.

The quilt now hangs in the Library, beautifully cleaned and the damage stabilized, but showing the scars it received in the fire. It consists of 25 full blocks, each approximately 13 inches square, and 5 half blocks. The pattern is an eight pointed star surrounded by 3 rows of sashing with a “nine patch” block at the intersections. The blocks are signed in permanent ink on the white fabric on the front.

Come in the Library and see how many familiar names you can find on the quilt.