Valentown Hall

There are multiple display cases and exhibits including artifacts from the original local insulator industry, Civil War artifacts, clothing & hats galore, farm implements and household utensils, candle making molds, spinning wheels, railroad & trolley memorabilia, blacksmith tools, paintings, old maps, and much more.

[6] Fisher remained the owner of Valentown until 1998, when the Victor Historical Society, a non-profit organization, bought the museum, its collection, and approximately 13 acres.

In 1879, Levi and Alanson Valentine constructed the 4-story shopping plaza and community center (complete with underground parking) on a busy crossroads homestead owned by their grandfather, Ichabod Town, hoping the property would be a stop on the Pittsburgh, Shawmut, and Northern Railroad.

In 1940s, longtime area residents Lillian and J. Sheldon Fisher purchased Valentown Hall to repurpose it as a museum of local history.

The couple and their four children lived in cramped quarters on the building’s second floor until 1965, when they acquired the Ichabod Town house, which remained their residence for several years.

During the 1880's through the early 1900's the hall served as housing for the meetings, events and community gatherings organized by the local residents and the Victor Grange (#322) Patrons of Husbandry.

The great farm fraternity known as the Grange had its beginnings through the efforts of the Federal Government in an attempt to bring order and healing to the grievous wounds of warfare and chaos in the South immediately following the Civil War.

After the consolidation of the two granges, meetings were held in W. B. Gallup block until quarters became too small and it was necessary to move into the auditorium of Victor Town Hall.

[14] Today, Valentown Hall operates solely as a historical museum, housing many exhibits with display cases and room settings that depict historic American artifacts and heirlooms that represent the rural life of nineteenth and early twentieth century people who once lived in the Victor area near Rochester, New York.

Valentown Hall