Old Village Hall Museum in Lindenhurst reopens after delays

The Old Village Hall Museum building in Lindenhurst took only 10 days to be constructed in 1914. Reopening the building after moving it has taken 12 years.

The museum, housed in a building that once served as the village’s municipal headquarters, was originally located next to Lindenhurst’s main firehouse on Wellwood Avenue. When the village sought to expand the firehouse in 2013, the one-story building was moved to Irmisch Park on Broadway, next to a 1901 rail depot and freight house.

“We’ve got a little historic compound going on now,” said historical society trustee and former Lindenhurst Mayor Lynda Distler. “It’s kind of like a landmark now in the village.”

The museum reopened to the public on July 26. Getting it ready was subject to numerous delays over the years, village officials said.

The home was originally set to be placed on a new foundation, but due to the high water table, pilings were used instead, Distler said. New doors, gutters and an air conditioning and heating system also were installed and electrical work done, Village Clerk Katie Schrader said. In addition, an extension was added for an accessible bathroom, kitchenette and office, Distler said.

The building move cost the village $180,000, Schrader said, and $100,000 in Suffolk County funds were used for the renovation work.

“It took a long time, but now that it’s all done we can say it’s all worth it and we’re quite pleased with the way it turned out,” Village Historian Anna Jaeger said.

In the interim, the Lindenhurst Historical Society sought to keep a museum presence in the downtown. The village purchased a three-story 1915 home on Wellwood Avenue, spending more than $400,000 to turn the space into the village’s Historic Home Museum and displaying artifacts that were once stored at the Old Village Hall Museum that showcased what life was like during the beginning of the 20th century.

However, a frozen pipe burst and flood in 2023 shut down that museum. Officials said they hope to reopen it in the fall.

Touting its original use

The Old Village Hall Museum building served as Lindenhurst’s Village Hall from 1928 to 1953, housing the tax receiver’s office, village court and a police station. The village handed over the building to the historical society and it opened as a museum in 1958.

Museum director Marianne Guglieri said she re-envisioned the 27-foot-wide building to show off more of its original use as a municipal building.

Walking through the front door, visitors are greeted by a staging of the tax receiver’s office, complete with period typewriters and phones. There are display cases showing off Lindenhurst’s breweries and other industries, and the village’s military history is also prominently on view, including many items from storage that the museum was never able to display due to lack of space.

“A lot of these, no one has ever seen before,” Guglieri said, noting a Revolutionary War cannonball, Civil War-era drums and a World War I-era nurse’s uniform.

A section on sports shows off one of the museum’s most prized possessions: a baseball signed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig from an exhibition game the Yankees stars played against a Lindenhurst team in 1930. A uniform from that local team also is on display.

Challenging quest for some grants

The historical society received a grant to restore some items, including a velocipede bicycle that dates back to 1895. But, Guglieri said, the society’s quest to get larger funding grants for projects has been stymied by not having a lease with the village for any of its museum buildings. Many of the larger grantees are looking for secured institutions, she said, and not having a long lease makes the museum appear vulnerable.

“It’s been tough,” she said. “What grant provider wants to give a grant if we could be put out of the building tomorrow?”

Village officials said they are in negotiations with the society to sign a lease, but Mayor Mike Lavorata said the village wants to be cautious to not “tie up future administrations” with a 20-year lease.

“I think we’ve finally come up with a number that’s acceptable,” Lavorata said, noting how impressed he was with the reopened museum. “We fully understand that they need this.”

Guglieri said more improvements will come in time to the museum, including creating a self-guided tour with digital displays.

“I hope they get the camaraderie and sense of community that we have in Lindenhurst,” she said of visitors. “They can get an idea of how people lived here and how their daily lives were ... and get a sense of Lindenhurst’s place in the rest of the world.”