Town of Hume Museum - Hume, NY - History Museums on Waymarking.com

The museum was established in April of 2000, prior to that the town did not have state required designated office space for the town historian. The town acquired the former schoolhouse from Fillmore Central School District in 2002. Prior to that the building was occupied by the Rebekah's Lodge, Odd Fellows Lodge and the Hume Community Club; the Rebekah’s being the last organization to occupy the building.

When the Fillmore Central School district was organized some of the rural schools remained open until there was not a sufficient number of students or a teacher to sustain a schoolhouse. The school district closed the doors in the mid 1940’s at that time the Hume Community Club was formed and offered the school district $1.00 for the purchase of the building. The property was listed on the tax roles and for more than fifty years the building was used for the Odd Fellows, Rebekah’s and was also rented for family gatherings, receptions, etc. to offset their expenses.

This remained the case until 2000 when the Rebekah’s approached the town to share the building. The Rebekah’s lodge membership was dwindling along with their resources and they were not sure who owned the building. An agreement was reached to share the building for one year with the town paying the utilities as their share of the expenses, the Rebekah’s were still paying the taxes. At the end of the year’s agreement the Rebekah’s had decided they would rather the town own the building if they could still have use as long as their lodge was chartered. Since titles ownership was not known a title search was done and found that the school district still owned the building! No one knows how it was listed on the tax roles, only speculation. They property was never deeded to the Hume Community Club because the NYS Boared of Ed deemed and offer of $1.00 was not fair market value. After this discovery the present school board did not want the building and an offer of $5.00 was made to Fillmore Central School and accepted (and also by the NYS Board of Ed). Hence the first owned town museum was established in Allegany County.

The town board holds its monthly and special meetings at the museum.
At the same time the hamlet of Fillmore celebrated its Sequi-centennial making it a perfect time to show the town had a secure place for historical loaned or donated items. The archives seemed to grow over night, to date there are over 4,000 items loaned or donated to the town.

Along with accessioned items, the museum also holds probably the single largest collection of Northern Allegany Observes, a locally printed newspaper. The newspaper began publication continues until the 1990’s in a neighboring town. This collection spans over one hundred years and is a tremendous asset to our record archives. Along with the newspapers other records from the former historian are twelve scrapbooks, probably form the newspapers in our possession, over 3,000 index cards of obituaries marriages, or significant events of the town’s history. The building’s construction has been dated circa 1890.

Information taken from Hume town historian.

Theme: Cultural History. Street Address: 10842 Claybed Rd Hume 14745 Hours of Operation: MUSEUM HOURS Monday 1-4 Monday July & August 9-12 & 1-4 Thursday 3-6 Saturday 9-12 For information, appointment, or directions call 585-567-8399 Museum Size: Medium Relevant Web Site: [Web Link] Food Court: Not Listed Gift Shop: Not Listed Cost: Not Listed

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