Museum gets a fresh new look

HAMLET OF JAMESVILLE- The Jamesville Community Museum recently moved forward with improvement projects it’s had on the docket for some time.
The latest improvements to the museum at 6492 E. Seneca Turnpike in the hamlet include a renovated entrance and a new sloped, poured concrete walkway to make the museum more accessible for all of its visitors. Those enhancements come courtesy of a crew headed by Jamesville resident Stephen Hadley, the owner and manager of Hadley’s Design and Landscaping.
The museum officers thank Hadley and his team for their “speedy execution” of the long-wished-for, excitedly anticipated project, which was facilitated on the museum’s end by trustee and point person Lance Baker. That local design and landscaping company has also taken care of pruning, weeding and mulching in other parts of the Jamesville community.
The former Saint Mark’s Church property, located on the corner where the turnpike meets South Street, was made to sparkle even more with the addition of mature plants and trees surrounding the walkway, including boxwood, hydrangeas, and juniper that cascades over the wall closest to the sidewalk.
“I think the best comment was that this all looks like it’s always been here,” Baker said, gesturing at the new architectural features and plantings at the museum. He said the design company was able to uniquely and artistically give the property a fresh, eye-catching feel while respecting the historical nature of the museum and how it used to look before certain wear and tear.
Local painter Matt Klish also repainted the entire exterior of the museum, all the way around from the ground and the sign up to the cupola.
Kelly Nye, the museum’s treasurer responsible for mailing out its tri-annual newsletter and posting on its social media accounts, said that the recent beautification work “all came together in a quick span of time” and that she and several other museum members have taken turns watering the newly planted flowers.
The plan is to carry the museum’s new design work over to the building next door, which was originally the site of Jamesville High School before the merging of the school district with DeWitt in the 1950s.
That building was torn down to make way for the firehouse built in 1958, Nye said, and in more recent years it’s been used for military displays on Memorial Day and summer concerts in front of the bay doors now that the fire department has moved up the hill to 6661 East Seneca Turnpike.
The museum is hoping to renovate that side building, which was signed over to the Town of DeWitt, and have the new walkway connect to it. Baker, a former superintendent of Jamesville-DeWitt schools, said the intention is to eventually make the building a place that contains a mini library, a senior citizen space, classrooms for educational elementary school field trips, and in the back Jamesville’s food pantry.
Lately the Jamesville Community Museum has been exhibiting for the short term a mineral collection supplied by Jamesville’s former local quarry superintendent Geoffrey Palin.
The temporary display of minerals and gemstones was amassed over many years by that now-deceased, England-born Jamesville resident, owing to his lifelong interest in geology and willingness to share his knowledge on the subject, and the collection was taken out of storage and arranged on tables by museum vice president Greg Titus.
Employed with Allied Chemical for 42 years until 1972 as plant manager of the Jamesville Quarry, which grinded up stone and helped the Solvay Process Company manufacture soda ash, Palin was also a fire commissioner for Jamesville and a member of the Council of Park Friends for Clark Reservation State Park, where he was known to give lectures about geology.
His sizable collection of minerals accumulated in different parts of New York State includes tremolite from Gouverneur, calcite from Lowville, augite from Natural Bridge, and graphite from Minerva. There are other minerals displayed permanently inside a cabinet in the museum, including ones found right in Jamesville.
The volunteer-run Jamesville Community Museum, which preserves the history of the hamlet year-round, is reliant on memberships and donations. It’s open any time by appointment, Sundays 1 to 4 p.m. May through December except on holidays, and Sundays 2 to 4 p.m. excluding holidays March through April.