“The things that we can see and touch awaken the imagination. Local history touches off these things that have happened on the spot; and the facts of local history become parts of a person’s own life to an extent which is rare with scenes and incidents one has taken solely out of books and secondhand accounts.”

Historian and philosopher, Louis Mumford, speaking to the DCHS membership at the Amenia estate of Joel and Amy Spingarn in September of 1926.