2025 Cycle
Hometown Heroes Banner Program
***APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2025 BANNER CYCLE ARE NOW AVAILABLE.
In 2023, the Greater Oneonta Historical Society (GOHS) launched the Oneonta Hometown Heroes Banner Program. The program honors Oneonta’s hometown veterans with a custom 18×48” banner, mounted along the light poles in the town and city of Oneonta to honor veterans or those currently serving in the Armed Forces.
The Hometown Heroes banners are displayed from Memorial Day (May 26, 2025) to Veterans Day (November 11, 2025) each year, and each banner includes a photo of the veteran, their name and branch of service, time served, and any medals received.
GOHS would like to thank our sponsors, veterans, and the City and Town of Oneonta for helping make the 2023 and 2024 Hometown Heroes programs a success! We look forward to continuing the Hometown Heroes program honoring current and past servicemembers in 2025. Banners can be sponsored by anyone who would like to honor a veteran. A sponsor may be a business, a friend or family member of a veteran (or a group of friends or family members), or the veteran themselves. The honoree does not need to be a native of Oneonta.
Like last year, display locations for banners in 2025 will include light poles down Main Street, River Street, and Chestnut Street (up to Church Street) in the City of Oneonta and Chestnut Street (from West End Avenue) and Oneida Streets in the Town of Oneonta.
The 2024 banners will come down in late November. They will be cleaned and stored at the Oneonta History Center (183 Main Street). If you are a banner sponsor that would like to pick up your banner(s), banner pickup will be available at the History Center after December 15 during business hours (Tuesday – Friday, 12-4pm; Saturday 10am-4pm; CLOSED JANUARY).
2023 and 2024 banner sponsors that wish to renew the display of their banner for the 2025 season may submit a renewal application for a small annual fee. Their banners will remain stored at the History Center until next season and put back on display. Any banner that is damaged or in need of repair will be reordered, at no cost to the sponsor.
Current and new banner sponsors also have the option to apply for a NEW banner(s) for the 2025 cycle. Both renewal applications and new banner applications for 2025 are available at the Oneonta History Center and for download below.
Banner sponsors will also have the option of choosing their preferred location(s) for their banner(s). All banners (new and renewed) and their locations are on a first come first serve basis and spaces are limited, so be sure to renew your banner, or apply for a new banner, soon! The deadline for applications for NEW banners for the 2025 cycle is Friday, March 28, 2025. The deadline for applications for RENEWAL banners for the 2025 cycle is Friday, May 2, 2025 (availability permitting).
Stay updated on the 2025 Hometown Heroes Banner Program and learn more about the application process and deadlines by following GOHS’ social media pages @oneontahistoricalsociety. For additional inquiries, please contact program director Marcela Micucci (directormm@oneontahistory.org) or call the History Center at (607) 432-0960.
GOHS looks forward to the 2025 cycle of the Hometown Heroes Banner Program.
2024 Live & Online
Annual Benefit Auctions
GOHS’ largest fundraiser of the year, our Benefit Auction, was a success!
A HUGE thanks to all who made this year’s live and online auctions a success – the Auction Committee, auctioneer Kevin Herrick, the bidders, the donors, the sponsors, the volunteers, and everyone else who helped in any way. We appreciate you!
If you have items to pick up an/or pay for from the Online Auction, please stop by the History Center when we are open (Tuesday – Friday 12pm-4pm; Saturday 10am-4pm)!
2024 NYS
Historical Marker Initiative
This year, the William G. Pomeroy Foundation’s New York State Historic Marker Grant Program funded the purchase of five new yellow and blue historical markers in Oneonta.
The markers include the D&H Train Station, built in 1892, at the former site of Stella Luna Ristorante (58-60 Market Street); the Huntington Home, today the Huntington Memorial Library and Park (62 Chestnut Street); Damaschke Field in Neahwa Park, one of the oldest active ballparks in America (15 James Georgeson Avenue); the Wilber Mansion, now home to the Community Arts Network of Oneonta (CANO) (11 Ford Avenue); and the Oneonta Armory, built in 1905 (4 Academy Street). With the help of the Future for Oneonta Foundation, GOHS has also individually funded a historical marker for the Oneonta Ford Sales Building. Each of these locations are a testament to Oneonta’s history of innovation, evolution, and enduring sense of community.
Please join us in celebrating the continued preservation of Oneonta’s rich history.
Thank you to our partners, Mayor Mark Drnek and the City of Oneonta’s Department of Public Works, for installing the markers and for supporting the historical marker project. And a special thanks to our friends and colleagues at Huntington Memorial Library, CANO, Stella Luna’s, and Damaschke Field for helping to make this round of historical markers a success!
D&H Special Exhibition - April 22, 2023 - November 2023
This spring, GOHS will open our next special exhibition, to open in April 2023. Released in two parts, the exhibition will commemorate the bicentennial of the D&H Canal Company charter, which provided over 100 years of railroad service to the town and city of Oneonta.
Part I, Building Up Steam: The Rise of the D&H Railroad in Oneonta (April 22 – July) and Part II, Leaving the Station: The Fall of the D&H Railroad in Oneonta (August – November) will explore the rise and fall of the D&H Railroad and its operations in Oneonta from the 1850s through modern day, including the invaluable impact the railroad had on Oneonta’s economic, social, and cultural landscape.
On display in the Brzozowski Special Exhibition Gallery and the SUNY Oneonta Alumni and Buckingham windows, it will feature a variety of local D&H artifacts, documents, and photographs from GOHS’ collection.
The exhibit is curated by GOHS’ Executive Director, Dr. Marcela Micucci, and Associate Curator Bhanu Gaur, with the help of a talented team of exhibition designers, docents, advisors, and collections staff. This exhibition was made possible in part by a 2023 New York State Council of the Arts Support for Organizations grant.
D&H Special Exhibition - April 22, 2023 - November 2023
This spring, GOHS will open our next special exhibition, to open in April 2023. Released in two parts, the exhibition will commemorate the bicentennial of the D&H Canal Company charter, which provided over 100 years of railroad service to the town and city of Oneonta.
Part I, Building Up Steam: The Rise of the D&H Railroad in Oneonta (April 22 – July) and Part II, Leaving the Station: The Fall of the D&H Railroad in Oneonta (August – November) will explore the rise and fall of the D&H Railroad and its operations in Oneonta from the 1850s through modern day, including the invaluable impact the railroad had on Oneonta’s economic, social, and cultural landscape.
On display in the Brzozowski Special Exhibition Gallery and the SUNY Oneonta Alumni and Buckingham windows, it will feature a variety of local D&H artifacts, documents, and photographs from GOHS’ collection.
The exhibit is curated by GOHS’ Executive Director, Dr. Marcela Micucci, and Associate Curator Bhanu Gaur, with the help of a talented team of exhibition designers, docents, advisors, and collections staff. This exhibition was made possible in part by a 2023 New York State Council of the Arts Support for Organizations grant.