Avon Preservation and Historical Society

Name: Avon Preservation and Historical Society
Address: 23 Genesee Street, Avon, NY, 14414, US
Telephone: +15852262425
Price range: $

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Avon Preservation and Historical Society

The historical society's mission is to interpret and preserve the history of the Avon, NY, area. Please come visit us on Sundays between 1:00 and 4:00.

The Avon Preservation and Historical Society (APHS) was chartered in 1983. Through diverse collections and educational programs, the Society aims to promote a sense of pride in the Avon community. The APHS Museum, located at 23 Genesee Street, is home to a wide variety of collections. Many unique photographs, historical documents and local memorabilia are on display. The displays change on a regular basis, so come often!

08/30/2026

Sign-up for this free tour on Sunday, Sept. 20 @ 1pm. Limited spaces available. You may sign-up in person at the Avon Museum (23 Genesee Street) or email [email protected]. This tour is brought to you by the Avon Preservation & Historical Society and the Avon Town Historian's office.

08/28/2026

This 1911 ad from the Avon Herald made our volunteers chuckle.

08/26/2026

⭐️Do you like history? ⭐️Interested in being part of a great organization that focuses on preserving Avon's rich history? ⭐️Have a few hours to spare every few months ?
💥Consider volunteering at the Avon Museum. Stop by the museum any Sunday from 1-4pm or email us at [email protected] to talk to one of our volunteers.

08/23/2026

Roller Skating ~ Part 3. Let’s wrap up our look at kids, roller skating and . . . broken arms? Click on the image below ⬇️ and read a story by Marian Whitmore Bailey, a school kid in the 1920’s in Avon, describing her adventures in skating.

It sounds like she had LOTS of fun until she took a tumble. The arm cast made of 2 pieces of wood from a cigar box sounds inventive, for sure. We hope there weren’t many kids who had broken bones from roller skating!

Many will remember Mrs. Bailey, who went on to be a 3rd and 4th grade school teacher in Avon. Check out this photo of her below ⬇️ from 1963. Just imagine, Mrs. Bailey — your school teacher — was once out there roller skating through the village. 😀

A newspaper article in 2013 on the occasion of Mrs. Bailey’s 100th birthday (!) said, “Mrs. Bailey keeps busy making lap robes for Theresa House, veterans homes, nursing homes, cancer, patients, and her church. She asks for yarn every year for Christmas. She loves doing puzzles, crossword puzzles, crocheting, knitting, reading, and jotting down stories of her childhood, which her family loves reading. She has tons of stories.”

Thanks to those stories, here we are in 2026 reading her roller skating story. We wish to thank the Bailey family for giving the AP&HS her memory book to keep for historical purposes in our family files.

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08/20/2026

🛼 “Mystery Item” ANSWER 🛼 The “Mystery” we posted on Tuesday was: A SKATE KEY. Many guesses were made, and 17 of you named it.

Extra credit to Darlene Kiel who shared a picture of her blue skate key, and to Tana Mease Coyne who shared a picture of skates & a key.

A gold star ⭐️ goes out to John Liccini for identifying the skate key song. Released in 1971, “Brand New Key” by recording artist Melanie starts out with: “Well, I’ve got a brand new pair of roller skates, you got a brand new key . . . I think we should get together and try them on to see . . .” Caution: This song has a habit of staying in your head for a long time! 🎶

Roller skating was an activity kids could do all summer, and the skate key was an essential tool. Many kids wore it on a string around their neck to keep from losing it. Skate keys were in all shapes and sizes; you can see a few in the photo below ⬇️.

To put your skates on, you wore your regular shoes and dropped your foot into the metal carriage of the skate. Most skates had a clamp and a strap to hold the shoe in place. Once the skate was on your foot, you’d use the skate key to adjust the parts of your skate and tighten the clamp to secure your shoes.

Skates could adjust for different sizes of feet — just use your skate key to change the size. How great is that for kids with constantly growing feet, or if you had to share skates with siblings?

Our “mystery” skate key belongs to a girl who grew up in Lima in the 1940’s-1950’s. Now an Avon resident, Betty Anne Hanna still keeps her skate key. She says, “I skated around my neighborhood and wore the skate key around my neck. My skates didn’t stay on very well. Often I stopped and put them on again. Lots of bloody knees!”

In 1999, the roller skate was inducted into the Strong Museum’s National Toy Hall of Fame. Read the Strong Museum’s profile of the fabulous roller skate, by clicking this link. ➡️ https://www.museumofplay.org/toys/roller-skates/

We’ll wrap up our look at roller skates with a story about a girl in Avon and her love of roller skating in the 1920’s. Watch for our post on Sunday.

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08/18/2026

❓What Is This Mystery Item❓ Have you seen one of these before? How did you use it? Share your guesses in the comments section ⬇️.

A couple hints:
1️⃣ If you were a child in the 1870’s to the 1970’s, you might have had one.

2️⃣ A folk-pop song was on the radio airwaves in 1971 singing about it.

We will post the answer later this week. Good luck with this mystery quiz!

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08/14/2026

Then and Now - The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) fountain at Circle Park in Avon, NY erected in 1904. The WCTU fountains were erected across the US and Canada in the early 1900's, as a visible alternative to visiting a saloon. The Avon fountain had a space for ice to cool the water, which flowed through a metal coil. A bowl is carved out of the granite atop the foundation, and surrounded by the columns to hold a pool of water. Very few of these fountains still exist.

08/07/2026

⭐️New items for sale⭐️
We will have some new items for sale during the Avon Corn Festival on August 8 from 10am -6pm. Come visit us at our tent or at the museum! Our museum shirts are $22 a piece and come in coral pink or green (not pictured). All sizes will be available at the tent.

08/05/2026

Then & Now ~ a look back at the Stalica Shell Station which once sat at 105 West Main Street.

Joseph Stalica opened a gasoline and automotive repair shop in 1948 at the base of the hill on West Main Street, next to King Cole Bean Company. Our first photo below ⬇️ is the Shell station, taken in the 1950’s.

The details are fun to look at . . . the circular Shell sign to the left, the gas pump in front, the tops of the King Cole grain buildings at the left. And, if you zoom in, you may be able to see Mr. Stalica working inside the garage, maybe bent over a vehicle. What else do you see in the picture?

Look closely in the black-and-white photo, and you will see a pipe with an air hose for pressurizing customers’ tires, sitting next to the ice house. That standpipe is still there today; we can see this red post toward the right in the second photo.

Ken Stalica, one of Joe’s seven children, shared memories with us about the auto shop. The family rented the house next door at 111 West Main Street, making it easy to shuffle back and forth from home to the shop.

Ken said: ”A car would drive in, roll over the rubber hose by the pump and ring the bell inside the garage indicating a customer wanted gas. Checking the oil and washing the windshield was part of the free service.”

The place was a sort of general store, Ken says. “Dad sold tires, tubes, ci******es, small toys like spinning tops & sq**rt guns, ice cream, fishing rods, reels and lures, coffee makers, waffle irons, clocks, dolls, and other things.“

Joe Stalica quit the gasoline and auto service business in 1954. We are grateful to Ken for sharing his recollections of that time with us.

Today, Avon Feed & Supply LLC takes the space where the Stalica Shell Station once was, operating in a newer structure. The store has long been a favorite place to purchase feed for animals and pets, birds, farm supplies, and more.

If you’re an AP&HS member, you can read more of Ken’s memories in the August issue of the AP&HS newsletter on its way by mail now. Getting the newsletter is a perk of being a member and supporting local history!

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08/02/2026

Open to all ages! The Livingston County Museum Trail Scavenger Hunt might be a fun activity to do today to beat the gloomy, rainy weather. Find 8 out of the 10 hidden Revolutionary War Soldiers hidden at the museums throughout Livingston County to win an America250 challenge coin or a larger prize. The Avon Museum is stop #1! Avon Museum is open today (Sunday) from 1pm -4pm.

Address

23 Genesee Street
Avon, NY
14414

Opening Hours

1pm - 4pm

Telephone

+15852262425

Website

http://avonpreservation.org/

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