Built in 1828, the Brick Tavern Museum is the oldest brick structure in Schuyler County. It was built as a tavern on the stagecoach route and has also been a Select School for Boys, a boarding house and a home to Dr. Charles D. Clawson, who ran the nearby Bethesda Sanitarium. After Dr. Clawson’s death, the building continued as a family home until his grandson, the late Charles Lattin, sold it to the Society in 1974.
Museum Exhibits
First Floor
Victorian Parlor – Furniture, china, paintings
Music in the Foyer – Instruments, piano forte
Research Library – Genealogy, local history
Gallery – Special changing exhibits
Gift Shop – Books, handcrafted items
Second Floor
Native American – Artifacts, arrowheads
Veterans – World War II to current uniforms, medals
Medical – Jane Delano of American Red Cross Nursing Service, Dr. Clawson
Industry – Salt, railroads, canals
Toy Room – Games, dolls, toys
Clothing – Men and women’s clothing, foot wear
Watkins Glen State Park – vintage souvenirs
Fiber Arts – Spinning, weaving, sewing, quilts
The Research Library
The Brick Tavern Museum’s Research Library is open for public use during museum hours. Researchers are required to make an appointment to use the library.
Please call the Museum at 607-535-9741 or email director@schuylerhistory.org to reserve time in the library.
Cost
Members
free
Non-members
$5/hour donation
Copying
25 cents/item
Some materials in the Research Library and Museum’s collections include:
- Vintage maps
- County and town information
- Area yearbooks
- New York State and general local history books
- Voter registration books
- Photo albums
- Diaries
- Store ledgers
- Family genealogy
- Family history files donated by family members
- Marriage, birth and death listings
- Cemetery listings
- Civil War muster rolls and medical documents
