Greater Oneonta Historical Society

2024 Cycle
Hometown Heroes Banner Program

GOHS is excited to announce the application and renewal application process and deadlines for the 2024 cycle of the Hometown Heroes Banner Program!

The banner program serves as a living tribute and to honor our community’s past and present members of the Armed Forces.

The personalized banners are displayed on the light poles throughout the Town and City of Oneonta to celebrate and remind our community of our local veterans’ historic service, bravery, and dedication to our country.

The banners will be displayed Memorial Day (May 27) 2024 – Veterans Day (November 11) 2024.

We look forward to continuing our Hometown Heroes program honoring current and past servicemembers in 2024! The 2024 cycle will expand the locations of banners to not only the City of Oneonta, but the Town of Oneonta as well. In addition to banner locations on Main, River, and Chestnut Streets in the City of Oneonta, the 2024 cycle will also include banner locations down Chestnut Street in the Town of Oneonta.

The 2023 banners are stored at the History Center and are available to pick up for any banner sponsors who would like to keep or hold on to your banner(s). If you are a banner sponsor who would like to pick up your banner, please contact the History Center by email (directormm@oneontahistory.org), or by phone (607-432-0960), or stop by when we’re open (W-F 12pm-4pm; Saturday 10am-4pm).

2023 banner sponsors also have the option to renew their application for the 2024 cycle, for a small fee, and their banners will remain stored at the History Center until next season and put back on display. Any banner in need of repair will be reordered, at no cost to the sponsor

Current and new banner sponsors will also have the option to apply for new banners for the 2024 cycle. Both renewal applications and new banner applications for 2024 are available at the History Center, and for download by clicking the links provided below. 

Banner sponsors will also notice an update to our banner application(s) for the 2024 year. We will now offer our banner sponsors 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 NEW banner applications for the 2024 cycle has been extended to Friday, March 22, 2024 (availability permitting). Banner REWEWAL applications will now be accepted until Friday, May 3, 2024.

Stay updated on the 2024 Hometown Heroes Banner Program by following GOHS’ social media pages @oneontahistoricalsociety, or by visiting our website at www.oneontahistory.org. For additional inquiries, please contact program director Marcela Micucci (directormm@oneontahistory.org) or call the History Center at (607) 432-0960. 

We look forward to the 2024 cycle of the Hometown Heroes Banner Program.

Oneonta Hometown Heroes Banner Mockup


Book Presentation, Chronicling a Crisis
Saturday, March 23, 1pm

Join us at the History Center on Saturday, March 23, at 1pm, for a book presentation led by editors of Chronicling a Crisis: SUNY Oneonta’s Pandemic Diaries (Albany: SUNY Press, 2023), about the COVID pandemic on SUNY Oneonta. This event coincides with the opening of GOHS’ current panel display, “Precautions Urged”: Public Health and Pandemics in Oneonta (February 16 – May 4).

The newly published Chronicling a Crisis: SUNY Oneonta’s Pandemic Diaries, edited by Ed Beck, Darren Chase, Matthew Hendley and Ann Traitor, is a powerful primary source collection compiled during the peak of the COVID pandemic between spring 2020 and spring 2021. It is based on a blog created at SUNY Oneonta to document the local impact of the COVID pandemic on a college community. The book both records and reflects upon the nature of daily life during a crisis. With over two hundred blog entries from students, faculty, and staff—including diary reflections, poems, pictures, and thought pieces—this volume lays bare the grief, frustration, fear, resilience, and upheavals of this tumultuous period. The book also contains three analytical chapters which put the blogs into historical context as well as examine the themes contained within the blogs and technical and organizational challenges faced by the project.

In their presentation at the History Center, the editors will highlight several representative blog entries from the crisis and discuss common themes that appeared throughout the text. They will also discuss the challenges of creating the blog and book and the multidisciplinary teamwork that helped make this project possible. They welcome questions from the audience. Copies of the book will be on sale after their presentation.

This event is free and open to the public, but we do request that you please consider RSVP’ing by Friday, March 22, by phone (607-432-0960) or by email (directormm@oneontahistory.org) to ensure we have enough seating for everyone.


17th Postcard, Book, & Ephemera Show & Sale
Saturday, April 6, 10am - 3:30pm

Mark your calendars for GOHS’ 17th annual Postcard, Book, & Ephemera Show & Sale on Saturday, April 6, at Elm Park Methodist Church (410 Chestnut Street) from 10am to 3:30pm. Admission is free.

GOHS will have donated postcards, books, and ephemera for sale, along with other vendors. In addition to books and postcards, visitors can expect to find vintage sports cards, stereo cards, stamps, magazines, and much more. There will also be a silent auction. Coffee, tea, and donuts will be available.

Prospective vendors should contact Bob Brzozowski (Brzozowski@OneontaHistory.org; 607-431-9509) or Bill Pietraface (607-432-1385; william.pietraface@oneonta.edu). Tables and chairs are included in the vendor fee.


Fairchild Mansion Walking Tour
2pm, Saturday, April 20, 2024

Join us on Saturday, April 20, at the Fairchild Mansion (now the Masonic Lodge at 322 Main Street) as Bruce Van Buren leads a tour through the historic home of George Fairchild, a U.S. Congressman and the first chairman of the Board of IBM. Fairchild’s son Sherman, today considered the father of aerial photography, was the founder of Fairchild Camera and Fairchild Aviation, and funded the founding of Fairchild Semiconductor.

This tour will meet at 2pm at the doors of the Masonic Lodge. This tour is by donation, and reservations are not required.

ALL HOMETOWN HEROES SPOTS CURRENTLY FILLED. Waiting list available in the event the program is expanded. 

GOHS Announces Next Big Project, the Hometown Heroes Program

This spring, the Greater Oneonta Historical Society (GOHS), in partnership with the City of Oneonta, will launch the Hometown Heroes Program. The Hometown Heroes Program is designed to honor a specific category of individuals who have made a significant contribution to their community and/or country. This cycle, GOHS will honor its hometown veterans. 

Each of our hometown veterans will be honored with a custom 18×48” banner, to be sponsored and paid for 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.

Each banner will include a picture of the veteran, their name and branch of service, time served, and any medals received. The banners will hang on street posts throughout Oneonta’s downtown, Neahwa Park, and/or various streets throughout the city of Oneonta. The banners will be on display from Memorial Day (May 29) 2023 through Veterans Day (November 11) 2023, at which time the banner will be taken down and returned to the sponsor. Sponsors will have the opportunity to renew the display of their banner each year for a small fee. 

The number of banners and their locations are available on a first-come, first-served basis, so don’t miss your opportunity to register for your veteran’s banner! Banner sponsors can purchase and register for their banners by mail (PO Box 814, Oneonta NY 13820), email (directormm@oneontahistory.org), or at GOHS’ Oneonta History Center (183 Main Street) during business hours (Wednesdays – Fridays, 12pm-4pm and Saturdays 10am-4pm). The cost of each banner is $150, and includes the banner, hanging brackets, banner proof, installation, and de-installation. The deadline for banner registration is Friday, March 24, 2023. Honoree profile forms and registration forms are attached here. 

The Hometown Heroes Banners are a wonderful way to foster our local community’s appreciation and respect for Oneonta’s many veterans and heroes, past and present. For further inquiries, contact GOHS’ Executive Director Marcela Micucci at 607-432-0960 or directormm@oneontahistory.org.  An administrative fee from the Hometown Heroes Program will go toward the Greater Oneonta Historical Society and may be tax deductible. 

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.