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JOHNSTOWN — For each box unpackaged at the Johnstown School Museum, often found is a missing link in the titular school district’s history.
Within recent months, plenty of boxes have been opened by volunteers. The reorganized museum includes new glass cases and shelves packed with displays dating back as far as colonial times.
“What’s great is that now if somebody brings a whole bunch of stuff here, we know where we’re going to put it,” said volunteer and retired teacher Jane Sitterly.
The district was founded by Sir William Johnson near the Fulton County Courthouse in 1764. By the 1790s, the then-all male Johnstown Academy was one of the first sites to accept teaching certificates in the school. The old name was changed during the 20th century.
The museum has separate rooms for the 1920s, the 1930s and 1940s, the 1960s, and the 1970s. Memorabilia from the 1950s and 1980s are on display in the main room next to the front entrance. Displays for the 1990s and 2000s are still works in progress.
“The kids in the 90s still have their own scrapbooks they don’t want to give up,” said Sitterly.
Based on old yearbooks, volunteers have pieced together a record of every alumni member from 1881 to 2023. The group is trying to match up identities to old nameless portrait displays from the early half of the last century.
“Maybe someday, people will say ‘Hey, that’s my grandma,'” said Sitterly. “Because we don’t know who any of them are.”
Public school museums are a rare find. Beyond Johnstown, there are only a few comparable institutions in the country, including the Dalles School District Museum in Oregon and the Parma City School District Museum in Ohio.
The property, which also includes a school building and field, was donated by 1900s gelatin mogul Rose Knox nearly a century ago. One freshly reorganized display explores the Johnstown-based businesswoman’s rise to power following her husband’s death in 1908.
Sitterly joked that she wouldn’t mind moving the museum to the Knox Mansion on 2nd Avenue if it was ever on the market and the funding was available.
“That’s got 42 rooms in it, so we would have fun in there,” Sitterly said with a laugh.
Sitterly is certain that the museum will run out of space at some point in the distant future, possibly requiring the need for an addition. Volunteers still have to unload a bevy of treasures scattered throughout the museum basement.
This includes binders from the late Bill Pollak, an ex-mayor and former curator.
“That was Bill planning what to do with this down here,” Sitterly said. “God bless him. It’s just hard to believe that anybody would do this.”
Pollak, a former social studies teacher, collected loads of old district memorabilia during his tenure. He helped found the museum in 2003.
“Bill could never see a piece of memorabilia and say no to it,” said retired guidance counselor Carm D’Amore.
“And good thing,” said Sitterly.
Pollak died on July 15 at 87 years old. He last visited the museum in fall of 2021.
A tape of Pollak touring with visitors roughly a decade ago was recently rediscovered among a set of old football game videos. Sitterly plans to convert it into a DVD and eventually give it to Pollak’s daughter.
“She and her husband can watch it when they can because I think it’s tough just to — I mean, I get teary eyed when I hear his voice,” Sitterly said.
Tyler A. McNeil can be reached at 518-395-3047 or [email protected]. Follow him on Facebook at Tyler A. McNeil, Daily Gazette or Twitter @TylerAMcNeil.
