The Garnerville Terminal – A Brief History
1760 – Grist mill owned by Cornelius Osborn operates on the Minisceongo Creek waterfall.
1830 – John Glass purchases 45 acres along Railroad Avenue and builds first textile mill making calico print.
1831 – Mr. Glass and 13 others killed in shipboard explosion.
1838 – Plant is purchased by the Garner brothers and expanded, now employing more than 800 people.
1853 – Textile mill is making 11 million yards of cloth per year. Workers homes & surrounding village named Garnerville
1860 – Civil War. Rockland Print Works manufactures uniforms for the Union Army of the North.
1915 – Textile mill now producing 1.6 million yards of cloth per week. Rockland Print Works literally owns the village, from the streetlights to the private police force.
1929 – The Great Depression begins. The textile mill closes. Buildings abandoned, machinery sold and moved.
1934 – William Larkin and 39 local businessmen purchase the complex with the help of a $150,000 loan from FDR’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
1940 – World War II. Uniforms made for American soldiers.
1950 – United Wire Goods Company is the first to start hiring Puerto Rican and Dominican workers.
1980 – Textile industry gone. Light industry moves in.
2001 – First Garnerville Arts Festival attracts 1000 visitors.
2003 – Arts Center is founded.
2007 – CREEKSIDE opens.
2008 – Arts Center becomes 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization.
2009 – ‘Encounters with the Arts’ educational programs begin.
2010 – 10th Annual Arts [and Music] Festival draws 5000 visitors.
2011 – Hurricane Irene destroys Garner’s Main Gallery, Arts Center is temporarily closed.
2012 – The Preservation League of New York State names Garnerville Arts & Industrial Center as one of its Seven to Save historic sites and grants the first Technical Assistance Grant for the restoration of Building #35. Garnerville Arts & Industrial Center site is listed as an Historic District on the New York State Register of Historic Places. GARNER Arts Center begins work on Building #35 restoration project.