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Our town has a long history of combining charitable donations, largely by seasonal residents, with the hard work and dedicated volunteering of year-round residents to achieve a level of social, cultural and conservation sophistication unusual in a town our size. Our town is a truly special place where this spirit continues today.

Our town's favorite saint, Doc Goff (right) rendered services without payment to many people in town and recruited seasonal residents like Drs. Ernest Sachs, Bronson Ray, Bill Woodin and Howard Mason to help in special cases. KV Neighborhood House was begun by Dr. Charles Hatfield in 1910 and in the 1950's moved to the current building, built on land donated by Normand F. Smith, II.

The water system in Keene Valley was donated by George Notman (right) in 1905 in response to a diphtheria epidemic. The work was all done with manual labor. 103 years later, we are trying to gather funds to replace it. Keene Central School was built on land donated by the Notman family, as was the KV Country Club.

Keene Valley Congregational Church is on land given by Sidney and Harriet Stone in August 1877. It thrives today with strong private financial support and a volunteer-oriented membership.

Sarah Dunham donated $200 in 1885 to begin what became the Keene Valley Library. Later she donated $800 for the purchase of property for the current building and Addison Baird collected almost $400 in donations toward the building. The Archives Room and original Archives collection of over 500 books were a gift by John Loomis.

Keene Library was started with the help of Prestonia Martin (right), as President, in 1904. The land was given by Wallace Murray of Saranac Lake. Thomas Davidson, founder of Glenmore and one of the leading intellectuals of the area, gave the original collection of books.

The town cable TV system (now KVVI) was built by George Bright with his own money around 1980. Before that people could only get one channel with lots of snow using rooftop antennas. He organized it as a business, but it is run more like a community service as income barely covers costs. At right is a wood carving of George done by Paul Twichell. Once again, it is the philanthropic spirit of the town (through the Town-Wide Broadband Access Project organized by the High Peaks Education Foundation) that is enabling the refurbishing and expansion of the system to include high quality, fast, internet access for the whole town.

The Keene Fire Department was organized by the Purdy family back in 1957. The Keene Valley Fire Department was organized in 1908 through the efforts of George Parker, a local artist and Justice of the Peace. It could not have been done without the fire hydrants built on the Notman's water system. For 40 years it was solely supported by volunteer fundraising, largely though musical events, such as Gilbert and Sullivan, organized by Lu Brown, the famous KCS music teacher.

Keene has a long history of generosity in both time and money.
Here are a few superstars from our town's past.

Dr. Goff

George Notman

Prestonia Martin

George Bright