AGAWAM — Historical treasures hidden since 2020 will be shown again Monday as the Agawam Historical and Fire House Museum reopens.
For some of these treasures, it’s taken decades to come to light.
“We found a lot of interesting things we did not know we had,” said curator Anne Liptak, about a four-year process to reimagine the displays and archives. “We found things that were donated in 1960. They were stuck in a corner, they were under something, they were just hidden from view.”
For the first time since the start of the pandemic, the museum will be open 12:30-3 p.m. on Monday. The afternoon will begin with remarks from museum officials and Mayor Christopher Johnson. Liptak said she hopes people who attend the Memorial Day parade and ceremony that morning will stick around to tour the historical museum, at 36 Elm St., about a five-minute walk from the Veterans Green. There is no admission charge.
What visitors will find in this museum — and similar museums, historical homes and display galleries in small towns throughout New England — is the history of familiar local places and the folks who live there.
“History isn’t just about George Washington or the Civil War,” said David Cecchi, president of the Agawam Historical Association. “It’s also the history of the town. It’s everyone that lives in this town. That is a concept that I think some people have a hard time grasping. That they’re part of the history of the town.”
One display at the museum highlights the life of Harlan Atwood, who graduated from Agawam High School in 1935. The display shows the class song he wrote and the “amazing art deco trophy” he won as Feeding Hills golf champion at age 16.
Then there’s Leonard “Buddy” Johnson, a star high school athlete in the 1940s. The museum has his letterman sweater, his football cleats and helmet, and the medals he won at track meets.
Cecchi drew a connection between displays like these and the Agawam Historical Association’s preservation work at the Thomas Smith House. The small, wooden house in Feeding Hills was never the home of anyone famous or wealthy, but it’s the only structure in town dating to the 1750s, and it tells the story of how ordinary people lived during that time.
“People like to be connected to the place where they live,” Cecchi said. “I know, just for myself, the research I’ve done … it helps me process the present. It really, I think, leads to a better understanding of how things got to where they are.”
The collection includes the original architect’s model for “Shea Field Elementary School” in 1958. That school opened as Robinson Park Elementary School and was recently renamed for former Mayor William P. Sapelli.
Agawam’s historical museum is itself a historical artifact: A converted fire station built in 1918 and decommissioned in 1994. The first floor is a display of antique firefighting tools, including a 1930 fire truck. That room, dedicated to former Fire Chief Russell “Rusty” Jenks, remained open for public visits while the upstairs was being renovated.
To reopen the museum, the Agawam Historical Association’s archives committee examined every donation it had received since 1960. It founds some items had little local significance so it sold them off. Some items were rescued from storage closets and will be shown publicly for the first time.
“It’s just incredible — original photographs as well as documentation and other paperwork,” said Liptak. “People’s diaries, people’s journals, people’s notes. We have maps that have been donated, maps that have been in storage for years and years and years, and now they’re going to be on display.”
The committee of four people — Cecchi, Liptak, Katy Krause and Sue Scantlen — met every Monday, and it took four years to sort through the collection.
The new display area is smaller than it was in the past, as the Historical Association carved out some space for an archive and workroom. But in designing the museum, “we really have utilized every square inch,” Cecchi said.
“I think where, in the past, you could make one visit to the museum, I think now you’re going to have to come back a couple times or more,” Cecchi said. “There’s that much to see and read.”
Both Cecchi and Liptak mentioned a new display case detailing the aviation history of Agawam. The land that is now the Agawam Industrial Park, off Silver Street, was known as Bowles Airport in the early days of flying. The town also had seaplane bases on the Connecticut River. Some of the country’s first stunt and racing pilots, and pioneers like Charles Lindbergh, flew into Agawam.
Some better-known aspects of Agawam history are also covered, such as the history of tobacco farming and the history of Riverside Park, now known as Six Flags New England. Liptak noted that the museum highlights a few of the 19th century industries that agriculture supported.
“Agawam and Feeding Hills have such a rich, long history that people aren’t aware of,” Liptak said. “They see the farms … but they don’t realize that there was much more than farming going on here. There was gin production, a woolen mill, and airports. This is going to, I believe, enlighten a lot of people when they walk in. There’ll be a ‘wow factor,’ we’re hoping for.”
As part of the reopening ceremony, the upstairs history room will be dedicated to the late Marilyn P. Curry, who moved to Agawam in 1964 and served as a leader in the Historical Association until the 2000s, serving as its president multiple times over several decades.
Cecchi said he got to know Curry as a young man, when he joined the committee she had started to commission the Anne Sullivan memorial sculpture in Feeding Hills Center. She was also the founding chair of the Agawam Historical Commission, a trustee of the Captain Charles Leonard House, and the chair of the committee that commissioned Edith LaFrancis’ book about Agawam history. Curry died in 2021.
The Agawam Historical Association is an independent, nonprofit organization. It is funded by gifts, grants, member dues, Agawam’s Community Preservation Act fund, and revenues from the sale of historical books, such as the three Arcadia Publishing books written by Cecchi: “Agawam and Feeding Hills,” published in 2000; “Agawam and Feeding Hills Revisited” in 2005; and “Around Agawam and Feeding Hills,” which came out this year.
Before the pandemic, the Agawam Historical and Fire House Museum would usually open on Memorial Day and one afternoon per month through the summer and fall. Cecchi said the schedule for 2025 hasn’t been finalized, but will likely focus on Thomas Smith House events in the summer and historical museum hours in the winter. Dates will be announced on the Historical Association’s website and Facebook and Instagram feeds.
