About Us
Waddington Historical Society
The Waddington Historical Association (WHA) was organized in August 2021 after a group of individuals with a keen interest in Waddington history came together and started talking about what they could do to help promote the community’s rich history. A Museum Board had recently been formed and Kathy Putney had just been appointed Waddington historian. The village of Waddington had recently acquired the Moore Museum, a private entity located on Main Street filled with local historical artifacts. It was just across from the Town Museum that is currently being housed in the basement of the old Town Hall. The goal was to combine the two collections and sell the Moore Museum building. In addition the Village of Waddington was asked to take possession of St. Paul’s Church because the congregation had dwindle to the point where they could no longer maintain the building that was one of the first stone buildings erected in Waddington by the community’s founding fathers and is the oldest church building north of the Mohawk Valley. These details created the perfect scenario for an organization to help support Waddington’s historical collections and artifacts.
From the beginning, the WHA has been fortunate to have a group of interested individuals who bring amazing individual talents and skills to the organization. We elected a board (see the Board page for current member bios), created committees, developed by-laws and created a mission and a vision statement.
We had an artist member who developed a beautiful logo for us using the Ogden Island mansion (a Waddington landmark dismantled during Seaway construction) as the background. We were fortunate to have an anonymous donation that made incorporation possible so we are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that allows membership and other donations to be tax exempt. We also had a wonderful donation from Change Results Consulting that allowed for the development of this website.
We are fortunate to have many supporters who have purchased annual memberships. Combined with the fundraisers we have conducted, these funds will allow us to provide support to the Museum and Historian in the preservation and updating of collections. We will also be looking at helping the Village with the preservation and maintenance of St. Paul’s Church, a large piece of Waddington’s history.
Annual memberships include a subscription to a quarterly newsletter, an invitation to our Fall celebration of history, and early notification of upcoming events. There is no obligation to attend meetings but we welcome anyone interested in helping with events and sharing ideas they may have for future events. Meetings are held on the 4th Tuesday of the month at 6 PM at the old Town Hall.