Founded in 1916, the Columbia County Historical Society Museum & Library
collects, preserves, interprets and presents the history, heritage, and culture of Columbia County, New York, and serves residents of all eighteen towns and the city of Hudson.
For more than 100 years, thousands of people from all across the county and beyond have enjoyed our varied exhibitions, historic properties, and educational programs.
A vital community resource, our collections include important and unique archives, maps, paintings, textiles, furniture and decorative arts relating to Columbia County’s heritage.
The Columbia County Historical Society includes two museum galleries of changing exhibitions, a research library and reading room, manuscript storage, collection storage and administrative offices.
The James Vanderpoel House shows special exhibitions from our permanent collection. Built during the Federal era as the home of prominent lawyer and politician, James Vanderpoel and his family, the property is now an exhibit space featuring galleries of paintings and decorative arts from the CCHS permanent collection. The CCHS Bookstore & Museum Shop is located within the house.
The Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse is a 19th-century building that served as a local single-room public school into the 1940s. Recently awarded a ‘Legends & Lore’ marker by the New York Folklore Society & William G. Pomeroy Foundation honoring Washington Irving’s “Sleepy Hollow” character ‘Ichabod Crane’, who was patterned after the original -local schoolteacher, Jesse Merwin, hence the schoolhouse name. Open seasonally—all summer and fall—along with the Luykas Van Alen House.
Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1967, the Luykas Van Alen House is a restored house museum representing 18th century rural Dutch farm life in the Hudson River Valley. Called“…one of the most authentic examples of early Dutch architecture remaining in the United States.” by then-Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller.
