Town’s 350th Anniversary Celebration Launches Website

Town’s 350th Anniversary Celebration Launches Website: www.eastchester350.org

It’s finally official.  The long-awaited website, www.eastchester350.org, is open for business!  The communication tool for the 2014 year-long celebration of the Town of Eastchester’s 350th Anniversary is ready for all town residents, including those in the Villages of Tuckahoe and Bronxville, to enjoy.

“Eastchester350.org has been designed to announce our programs, excite our citizens about coming events and provide all local history lovers with an opportunity to explore their very own rich history,” announced Linda Doherty, Co-Chair of the Eastchester 350th Anniversary Celebration and of the website’s sub-committee. 

Doherty added: “We knew from the earliest planning stages that our teachers and their students would need original documents, photographs and other images to begin their year of discovery.  But, we also wanted the site to include an opportunity for everyone to understand the town’s complete -- and sometimes unknown -- past and to participate in the experience by submitting their own ideas and contributions.”

The site features an events’ calendar, a full description of planned community programs and an outline of the K-12 Educational Program.  A click through the section titled “Our History” reveals 17th and early 18th century “founding documents,” a catalog of town and village vintage and modern photographs and many online resources leading to other images.   There are numerous links to state and county archives, to other historical repositories and to research tools. 

Unique to this website is a section known as “Historians Corner” where the user can click on numerous articles published by current Town Historian Dick Forliano and long-time columnist Vince Bellew.  The recent exhibition “Hero Next Door,” created by Mike Fix to honor the town’s outstanding veterans, is spotlighted here as well.  This section and one titled “Residents’ Memories” should grow as the celebratory year encourages submissions of well-researched essays and oral histories from the residents.

Because the Eastchester 350th Anniversary Steering Committee has welcomed all volunteers, ranging from “lifers” to those brand new in town, it is no surprise that the design and development of www.eastchester350.org  was accomplished by Jennifer Frost and Kevin Elbert, who have recently made their home on Garth Rd.   Although having active careers and their own Graphic Design business, the couple voluntarily supplied all design elements to the website and oversaw its production -- from establishing a Drop Box account for the Steering Committee’s use to devising a unique logo and palette to improving images and uploading all the text and images in the Word Press framework.  The sub-committee included Patty Dohrenwend and Donato Vaccaro, residents since birth, as well as Linda Doherty and Historian Forliano.  Their duties included research, writing, editing and proofing.

Frost observed that this website is “still very much a work in progress.  We want to include other features, such as Pay Pal and streaming videos.  Right now, the focus is to launch the site and fine tune it as usage increases.”

During the weeks of development, many images were secured from the Eastchester Historical Society, the Eastchester Town Clerk’s Archive, the Westchester County Archives, the Westchester County Historical Society and the New York State Archives.  As Dohrenwend, former Town Clerk and former director of the Westchester County Archives & Records Center, remarked, “This was collaboration at its best.  The secure facilities of the larger repositories is the appropriate permanent home for many of the original materials.  But, ensuring public access is also a prime mission for these institutions.  There was a need to scan, index, transfer and upload many records.  We had incredible assistance from Eastchester to Albany to Elmsford and back again!”

Eastchester’s 350th Anniversary Celebration will feature lectures, educational programs for all students, a gala, a community day, a super-size exhibit in the fall and culminate with a well-researched and richly illustrated history book.  Residents and community organizations are invited to participate, to support the celebration with contributions and to volunteer their own family and institutional memories.

All local organizations are encouraged to submit their group’s particular history and keep the town’s birthday in mind when planning their own 2014 events. The histories and announcements can be posted on the new website.  The Steering Committee reserves the right to edit and upload all website materials.

Residents may contact individual Steering Committee Members or use the email: Eastchester350@eastchester.org.

Although costs for the website have been kept to a minimum, other programs require financial support.  Contributions to Eastchester 350th Anniversary, Inc. are tax deductible, since the group is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.  Checks may be mailed to Eastchester 350th Anniversary, Inc., 40 Mill Rd., Eastchester, NY 10709.