New York, Orleans County, Albion
![]()
Church in the denomination. Rev. Loren Stiles founded the congregation in 1859. Normal Revival in style it was dedicated May 18, 1860.
(Churches, Etc.) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Church in the denomination. Rev. Loren Stiles founded the congregation in 1859. Normal Revival in style it was dedicated May 18, 1860.(Churches, Etc.) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
First United Methodist Church 
Irish, English, Italian and Polish Immigrants
quarried Medina sandstone, a major industry in 1870-1930. Presbyterian Church and 175' spire show use in architecture.
Swan Library
William G. Swan Benefactor
Chartered December 21, 1899
Opened March 17, 1900. Oldest Orleans Co. Library, former R.S. Burrows Mansion - 1851
Lillian Achillies 1st Librarian
Irish Immigrant at age 12
Teacher, lawyer, publisher
Active in Democrat politics
Elected N.Y.S. Attorney Gen. Served one term 1903-04
Horace H. and Mary A. Rackham, generous donors to the University of Michigan, established the Rackham Fund in 1933 “for the benefit of humanity.” Feeling that the graduate school offered possibilities of the most far-reaching benefits, the Rackham Fund in 1935 donated substantial funds to endow the graduate school, which had been founded in 1912, as well as funds to construct a building. At the time, it was the largest gift ever given in support of graduate education in the United States. Both the school and the building were named for Horace H. Rackham.
1941 1945
In sacred memory of our soldiers and sailors who made the supreme sacrifice
Orleans County
State of New York
"Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends." John XV-13
May they rest in peace
Dedicated May 25, 1947
J. N. "Ding" Darling was a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist who advocated for the conservation of our Nation's natural resources. He inaugurated the Federal Duck Stamp Program and drew the first stamp. He was founder of the National Wildlife Federation and architect of the Cooperative Wildlife Refuge System. In 1934, as Chief of the Bureau of Biological Survey, predecessor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, he proposed a plan to establish the Nation's first wildlife research center. In 1936, by executive Order No. 7514, that vision became a reality with the creation of Patuxent Research Refuge.
This is the former Norfolk and Western Railroad's CF Class Caboose #518-303. It was built at the N&W East End Shops in Roanoke, Virginia, in April 1922. The N&W did not serve Bowie but did enter Maryland at Hagerstown. After nearly fifty years of service she was retired to a scrap yard, but rescued, and given to the city of Bowie in 1972. She sat in Allen Pond Park, suffered a fire in the late70s, and was relocated to this museum in 2000, then restored on the exterior.
(See individual section text below)
Built Circa 1840
Site of a Sawmill; Clothe Wks
The School Building Just Ahead of You Opened In 1912 as the Military Road School, the area's third public elementary for African Americans. For decades it was the only public school serving black children in Upper Northwest and nearby Maryland.
The land in front of you has changed considerably since 1863. During the battle of Gettysburg, Jacob Kime and his family lived in a farmhouse located several hundred yards farther down this lane. 
Hermann (Arminius) of the Cherusci tribe led several German tribes in battle against their Roman conquerors in 9 A.D., and defeated them in the hills of Teutoburg Forest near present Detmold. To later unified Germany, Hermann symbolized liberty and unity. In 1874 Ernst Von Bandel completed a colossal German Monument dedicated to Hermann near the Teutoburg site.
S. S. James Oglethorpe launched on November 20, 1942, during World War II, the first of 88 Liberty Ships
built by Southeastern Shipbuilding (approximately two miles downriver from here). Setting sail from New York in a convoy bound for Liverpool, she was torpedoed by a German U-boat on March 16, 1943, and was lost the next morning along with 44 of her 74-man crew. Liberty Ships were merchant vessels built quickly and efficiently in numbers high enough to overwhelm German efforts to blockade U.S. ports and disrupt the flow of supplies to Allied forces in Europe. The Liberty Ship-building program marked Georgia’s most important contribution to the Battle of the Atlantic. It produced 173 ships built in yards in Savannah and Brunswick and mobilized nearly 62,000 workers statewide.
The Grand, Neo-classical Revival style building that you see across Georgia Avenue north of Missouri opened in 1925 as the Bank of Brightwood, thanks to efforts of the Brightwood Citizens Association. Designed by Treasury Department architect Arthur Blakslee, the bank's ornate Corinthian columns seem to say "this is a serious institution!" Its arrival reflected the area's growth as a place of business.
