From its role in the American Revolution to the 1960s Cultural Revolution, New York’s
Hudson Valley has been pivotal in American history. While many of these stories are
important, only some have been carefully preserved, shared and passed down through
generations to maintain their present-day relevance. Some stories are far more
neglected, and only through the remains of distinct, tangible artifacts can the past be
revealed. To research forlorn facts to uncover the hearts and hands that shaped what
many call home, join historian Alex Prizgintas for a four-part lecture series about
neglected history in the Hudson Valley. Beginning with the eighteenth-century Gomez
Mill House of Marlboro, NY, Prizgintas reveals the home’s significance as the nation’s
oldest Jewish dwelling. From here, a journey west takes us to the Ellenville Glass Works,
an industry that, despite once boasting more than 700 employees, has vanished. This
nineteenth-century industrial expansion was also a point at which dairy farming
blossomed in regions such as Orange County, where the first long-distance shipment of
milk in the nation occurred in 1842. The final chapter concludes with what many of us
remember as the hotels and bungalow colonies that populated the Catskill Mountains.