Special Collections
As a member of the Village Planning Board in the 1950’s, Charles V. Brady took hundreds of photographs of homes, businesses, municipal buildings, and streets throughout Freeport. Originally kept in the tower of Village Hall, Brady’s black and white photographs were added to the Freeport Historical Society’s collection in 2005. The Freeport Memorial Library’s Brady collection includes color slides which were scanned in 2006. Combined, this collection represents over 200 of images of Freeport in the 1950s. Notable images include the construction of Freeport High School on Brookside Avenue and the elevation of the Long Island Railroad tracks. .
This collection includes rare black and white photographs of Jones Beach State Park from the Freeport Historical Society. Taken about 1934, these photographs include images of lifeguards, performers, beach goers, and the construction of the Meadowbrook Causeway. Additionally, postcards and later pictures round out the view of this wonderful resource which is partially in Freeport.Vaudeville .
In the 1910s and 1920s, Freeport was known as the Entertainment Capital of Long Island. Many actors, musicians, songwriters, and entertainers came to Freeport for the summer. Taken from the archives of the Freeport Historical Society, this collection includes portraits, postcards and publicity photographs of vaudevillians, their activities and homes.
John F. DeLorme
In 1955, Village Trustee and Historian John F. DeLorme organized and annotated 161 images pertaining to Freeport history. These items were combined into a three volume set titled, Pictorial History of Early Freeport New York. The Freeport Historical Society, Village Hall, and the Freeport Memorial Library were each given a copy. Over the years, photographs got lost, annotations that were originally glued to the photographs fell off, and after years of photocopying, some of the images faded. In 2005, using all three sets, Village Historian Cynthia Krieg and Librarian Regina Feeney created a complete virtual copy for the digitization project.
