Sparta's Historical Society has a home

SPARTA — History is coming to life at the Sparta Historical Society’s new headquarters, a three acre property located right next to the Sparta Middle School. The house was built in the 1790s and is listed on Sparta’s Registry of Historical Sites.

Once a 96-acre farm, according to SHS President Ed Fritsch, the Van Kirk House is among the oldest properties in town, from around the same time as Robert Ogden’s home in Ogdensburg, which used to be part of Sparta.

“His wife named Sparta,” Fritsch explains. “She wanted her son to be valiant like the Spartans of old.”

Visitors to the Van Kirk House will be treated to many old world delights from antiques to spinning wheels, one as old as 1890, even Thomas Edison’s time clock which still works. Slide a piece of paper in and the time clock retrieved from one of Edison’s mines will stamp the time. All clocks located on the premises are set to 6:45 p.m. In military time, that’s 18:45, the year that Sparta was incorporated.

The Sparta Historical Society had spent a long time searching for a suitable home for its museum before landing at the Van Kirk House. After six-years leasing the property from the Sparta Board of Education, it was time for a more permanent arrangement.

It took another two years to finalize the deal, but as of September, Fritsch says, “We are now the proud owners,” after the BOE transferred the property for just one dollar. The house and its grounds are already a treasure trove of historical wonders.

The property features a white oak tree which according to the state Department of Forestry is 23 feet high and four-and-a-half feet wide, two community gardens, a milk parlor and a tool barn.

Step inside the home and you will find a Victorian era parlor, a Civil War era bedroom set, a display of a typical Sussex County farm, and other oddities such as a wagon once used by a woman who peddled candy in Newton. Ella Mills Green was murdered in her home at the Old Monroe School House on Dec. 12, 1940 after two other failed robbery attempts. The murder of the candy dealer remains unsolved.

Visitors will also learn interesting facts about the home’s past inhabitants, the Van Kirk’s. The original owner, Thomas Van Kirk was a justice of the courts and one of the founders of the First Presbyterian Church of Sparta.

Fritsch loves to regale visitors with anecdotes about Warden Van Kirk, founder of a vigilante society which according to its membership book was “dedicated to the detection of horse thieves.”

“If somebody was caught stealing horses or cows, they’d go after him,” Fritsch said.

The membership book dated July 7, 1898 reads like a “Who’s Who” of Sussex County’s past founding families with names like Kinny, Leach and Earl. Upstairs a second floor bedroom houses the Eppler Collection, featuring a map of Sparta from 1869. The map pre-dates street names instead identifying residences through the family that lived in the house. Study it carefully and you will see some familiar names there as well such as Littell on Route 94.

The Van Kirk house was last occupied as a home in 1995. Sparta Historical Society member, Marilyn Mull who was a Van Kirk prior to her marriage lived there and shared some of her recollections about the property with SHS Board Member, Bob Nicholson. They operated the milk farm called Mohawk Dairy which initially sold raw milk in the days before milk was pasteurized. The property used to contain a corn crib, horse barn, wagon house, smoke house, tool shed and a storage area for hay and mother materials. There were also large gardens on the property and even an apple orchard behind what is now Jack and Sue’s garden. A swimming pool on the property was installed in the 1970s where Wendi’s garden is now located.

The two community gardens are available to the public for a fee. The plots were once farmed by students at the Sparta Middle School, but that program recently ended. In the future, the historical society plans to offer more programs to the school children and adults including tours.

The house is still off limits to the general public for now though. The Sparta Historical Society hopes to open the historical Van Kirk House to the public by this spring.

Before that can happen, some repairs do need to be made. The three major items are the roof, furnace and septic and until that’s done, the property will remain without a certificate of occupancy. Fritsch says those repairs will cost thousands of dollars so fundraising will be a major part of the society’s activities for the next year.

On Nov. 9, the SHS is holding its annual Antique Alley event to raise some funds. Admission is free but Jon Felz, of RZM Fine Arts and Antiques, will be appraising items for a charge of five-dollars at the Sparta Ambulance building from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Also on November 14, the SHS is holding a presentation at Mohawk Avenue School at 18 Mohawk Avenue about the Mayflower. The program, “Stranger Among Saints,” features David Emerson of History on the Hoof as “Stephen.” Stephen will share stories of his voyage on the Mayflower and his new life in America. The program is free but donations are appreciated.