Lindenhurst village museums get a new director and renovations

By Denise M. Bonilladenise.bonilla@newsday.com denisebonillaAugust 3, 2020

Lindenhurst has appointed a new director of the village’s two museums and hired a local company to perform work at one location.

The village appointed Marianne Guglieri, former president of the village’s historical society, to replace longtime director Johanna Sandy, who retired in June. The appointment is for one year with an annual salary of $4,000.

Guglieri will oversee the Village Museum on Wellwood Avenue and the Old Village Hall Museum in Irmisch Park. The 1914 Old Village Hall building was moved to Irmisch Park in 2013 and its contents relocated to what is now the Village Museum, in an early 20th century home purchased by the village. Both museums have since been undergoing renovations, but because most museum workers are seniors who must rely on outside volunteer help, much of the work was put on hold with the COVID-19 shutdown, Guglieri said.

“We were still able to do wallpapering, other things that didn’t require us to be running up and down stairs or carrying heavy objects,” she said.

The village’s board of trustees last month approved paying Darby Glass Co. of Lindenhurst $40,000 to install new ceilings, floors and walls in the Old Village Hall Museum.

“As soon as that scope of work is complete, then we’ll be able to find someone, some volunteers or even paid employees, to work there,” Guglieri said.

To pay for the relocation, the purchase of the Wellwood Avenue building and the renovations, the village has spent about $350,000 and has used more than $255,000 in state and county grants and fundraising from the historical society.

Guglieri said she hopes that renovations on the Village Museum will be finished in the coming weeks and that the work on the Old Village Hall Museum is completed in the fall. Once done, both museums will be open two days a week, for two hours each day, she said.