HADLEY — Old Hopkins Academy yearbooks and senior class photos, weekly school newsletters dating to the 1940s and a nearly century-old toddler’s outfit are among items held by the Edward Hopkins Educational Foundation.
But though the collection has important artifacts from Hadley’s educational history, access for the public has been limited.
“We have a lot of things people are doing research on or interested in family history would like to see,” Kathy Tudryn, president of the foundation’s board, told the Select Board on Wednesday.
With Tudryn making an appeal for more accessible space, Select Board members agreed that the foundation can use an area on the main level of the former Goodwin Library building to store its collection and welcome the public on occasion, at least temporarily.
That could change when improvements to the building, being funded with a $265,000 Town Meeting appropriation from 2020, get underway, although the timeline for that work, including replacing wiring and installing temporary bathrooms, is not yet known.
Tudryn said the collection has been moved twice in recent years, first from the Hadley Historical Society building on Middle Street, and then from the former Hooker School building before it was demolished in 2019 to make way for the new town library.
Since that time, the collection has been kept on the second floor of Goodwin, but Tudryn said this is not suitable due to the limited public access, via a staircase, and because the room is supposed to be dedicated to Hadley Media for its operations in providing community access service and broadcasts.
Even with limited access to the collection, Tudryn said her organization was able to help a California resident replace his Hopkins yearbook after it was lost to a recent forest fire. The collection has not only paper materials, but other items, including a toddler’s outfit worn by Rufus “Bud” Kneeland, who gained fame in the region for his involvement in numerous sports, including as a boys basketball coach at Hopkins during record 42-game winning streak in the 1950s and guiding Amherst Regional High School’s football team to a Super Bowl win in 1975.
With the approval, Select Board members suggested that Tudryn might solicit Hopkins students as volunteers to move the collection down the flight of stairs and set it up in the new space.
Meanwhile, Town Administrator Carolyn Brennan said she is also looking for other places to store town documents, observing that filing cabinets with records and other materials are being kept in the main meeting room on the second floor of Town Hall. These need to be in climate-controlled spaces.
The former library has also been considered as a place to store the Planning Board’s paper files, which are in the process of being scanned so there will be electronic records of decisions and site plans. This project has been delayed by the pandemic, but Select Board member Joyce Chunglo said officials should commit to completing this.
“We’re long overdue to help the Planning Board,” Chunglo said.
