Preservation Long Island is pleased to recognize the exceptional local advocacy and stewardship of our colleagues at Oakdale Historical Society with this 2020 Organizational Excellence Award!

We’ve partnered with Chris Kretz of The Long Island History Project to celebrate our 2020 Preservation Awards with a new podcast series. Listen to a podcast with Maryann Almes, president of the Oakdale Historical Society:

Members of the Oakdale Historical Society pictured above inside historic St. John’s Church. Image courtesy of the Oakdale Historical Society.
Maryann Almes, president of the Oakdale Historical Society, speaks in support of local landmarking at an Islip Town Board hearing in 2018. Image courtesy of Newsday.

Oakdale Historical Society (OHS) is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization serving their community as effective advocates for preservation and vigilant stewards of local history. In recent years, they faced the closure of Dowling College and the sale of its Oakdale campus situated at the heart of William K. Vanderbilt I’s Idle Hour estate. OHS sponsored the nomination of historic properties associated with Idle Hour, including the mansion, for Preservation Long Island’s 2017 Endangered Historic Places listing. OHS members organized and led a successful advocacy campaign that created a strong base of community support for the designation of Idle Hour properties on the former Dowling Campus as Islip Town landmarks, protecting them from potential demolition and inappropriate redevelopment.

OHS knows that the work of preservation does not end at landmark designation, and they continue to serve as vigilant advocates for Idle Hour’s historic structures by raising awareness about potential issues and encouraging historically sensitive solutions. OHS also supports Oakdale’s 18th-century St. John’s Church (ca. 1765) by co-sponsoring events like Civil War Christmas as well as assisting with the maintenance and interpretation of the colonial church and surrounding cemetery grounds.

Preservation Long Island is pleased to recognize the exceptional local advocacy and stewardship of our colleagues at Oakdale Historical Society with this award!

OHS-sponsored Civil War Christmas event at historic St. Johns Church. Image courtesy of the Oakdale Historical Society.

Preservation Long Island’s biennial Preservation Awards are made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

 

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