After 14 years without a permanent home, the Plattekill Historical Society has moved into new digs in the old Plattekill Grange No. 923 on Route 32. The volunteer work to renovate the circa-1903 building has been going on for more than a year and is still in progress, but enough of the renovation has been done that the first floor is ready. Monthly meetings of the organization are now held there on the third Saturday of most months, and the space provides room for exhibitions of the group’s collection of antique maps, documents, and historic local photographs and postcards.

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The Plattekill Historical Society is in the process of becoming a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit, and it’s even getting a new name: the Plattekill Historical Preservation Society, reflecting the organization’s mission to research, document, and preserve the history of its community. The group has committed to a 99-year lease on the Grange building, located at 127 Church Street in Plattekill.

Ownership of the building will remain with the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, which was founded in 1867 to encourage farmers to band together to promote their economic well-being. The fraternal organization still maintains more than 2,100 community, Grange Halls, in small rural communities nationwide. The Plattekill chapter was among the earliest; according to local historian, Elizabeth Werlau in her book about Plattekill in Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series, Plattekill’s first Grange was organized in 1876, with the most recent group formed in 1902.

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Plattekill Historical Society board member Shirley Anson says that she remembers many active Granges in the area when she was growing up. “Over the years, the Grange was an extremely important part of the community. Sometimes they would hold school functions – the Clintondale Grange held the local eighth-grade graduation ceremonies – and everyone that has dropped into the Plattekill Grange has talked about attending their dinners and dances, and even plays.”