To the Editor:

As you drive along U.S. Route 20 in Guilderland, past gleaming grocery stores, fancy new restaurants and franchise eateries, coffee shops, and professional offices, stopping here and there at each traffic light among close rows of shiny cars and trucks and vans with their busy drivers all hurrying about their daily errands and marking the remarkable prosperity of the town of Guilderland, have you ever wondered what it must have been like to stop in the middle of the road a little ways past the Burger King near the UPS store and Hewitt’s Garden Store to wait at the tollgate there for a herd of swine to pass through?

If you have, we can help! Come along on a visual history tour of Guilderland’s communities and corners, past and present, as Mary Ellen Johnson presents “A Historic Photo Tour of Guilderland,” including a photo of this very tollgate!

Ms. Johnson’s program will cover areas of the township including Hartman’s Corners, Fort Hunter, French’s Hollow, McKownville, and Glass House — later Hamiltonville, now Guilderland — and will range from the 18th to the 21st centuries.

Mary Ellen is a long-time member and past president of the Guilderland Historical Society; author of the monthly column “A Glimpse of Guilderland History” in The Altamont Enterprise; and, with Alice Begley, co-author of the Arcadia Press photo history “Images of America: Guilderland, NY” (1999).

She will speak on Thursday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m., in person, at the Mynderse-Frederick House at 451 Route 146, Guilderland Center; the event is free and open to all, with plentiful easy parking in the church lot next door.

Tom Capuano

Vice President

Guilderland

Historical Society