_____________
ROCKVILLE CENTRE
____________
HERALD
Property tax savings for our neighbors and friend s.
Get Results. Sign Up To day!
Breakfast at the Backyard
Bethany House fashion show
Page 3
Page 9
Vol. 34 No. 14
MARCH 30 - APRIl 5, 2023
DEADLINE APRIL 3RD $1.00
LAST CHANCE
THE LEADER IN PROP ERTY TAX REDUCT ION Sign up today. It onl y takes seconds. Apply online at mptrg .com/heraldnote or call 516.715.1266
Maidenbaum Property
Tax Reduction Grou
p, LLC 483 Chestnut
Hablamos Español Street, Cedarhurst, NY 11516
‘Don’t rain on my parade’ Daniel Offner/Herald
The weather couldn’t keep Michaela Stines down, as she joyfully performed with the Hagen-Kavanagh School of Irish Dance during the 25th annual Rockville Centre St. Patrick’s Day Parade. More photos, Pages 12 and 13.
Historical society digitizes over a century of village heritage By DANIEl oFFNER doffner@liherald.com
The Rockville Centre Historical Society is taking an inventory of old maps, postcards, photographs and other historical documents in the Phillips House Museum’s archives and digitizing them for future generations to access online. Alene Scoblete initiated the effort to build a digital archival collection when she was the adult reference librarian and community archivist for the public library, where she worked for many years, to offer patrons new ways to access local history from centuries past.
Before she retired in September 2021, Scoblete agreed to work with the historical society, and with the help of some colleagues, she has spent over a year uploading old photos and documents online via New York Heritage, a digital database that categorizes historical documents from state organizations. “Then it was just, where to start?” Scoblete said. “So I started with houses of worship. Then Debbie and Matt joined in, and have been absolutely phenomenal.” Scoblete and historical society trustees Debbie Fehringer and Matt Cliszis have combed through dozens of files at Phil-
lips House to determine what would be the best to scan and upload to the New York Heritage website. Once they have finished with houses of worship, they plan to move on to historic homes, the village’s first families, and communities of color. “You always have to start with one clue,” Scoblete, who now lives in Madison, New Jersey, said via FaceTime. “And then, as Debbie says, you go down a rabbit hole, or multiple rabbit holes, as you’re researching.” They scour newspaper archives, old telephone directories and reference websites like Ancestry.com to get all the infor-
mation they can before sharing it online. “We help organize what we have in our files,” Fehringer said, “which is sort of a hodgepodge collection of memorabilia, old newspapers, and bits of information collected from residents who lived here for a long time.” The process is arduous and time-consuming, but Fehringer
and Cliszis think of it as a “labor of love” that they are proud to be part of. By digitizing the Phillips House archival information, Fehringer explained, they hope to provide new insight for people curious about their property, their genealogy, and the history of the village. “We want to Continued on page 4