Suffolk County Historical Society executive director to leave post

The executive director of the Suffolk County Historical Society is moving on.

The organization announced today that Kathryn Curran, who has held the post for four years, has been hired as executive director of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation in Hampton Bays. Curran starts the new job in September.

The historical society, located at 300 West Main St. in Riverhead, will mount a search for a new executive director in the fall, the organization’s board of trustees said in a press release about Curran’s departure.

“The Suffolk County Historical Society board of trustees is both saddened and delighted by Ms. Curran’s new career opportunity,” according to the release.

The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to educate and inform the general public concerning the culture, art and tradition of Long Island. It funds grants supporting historical societies’ work to collect and preserve documents and artifacts as well as the preservation, restoration and exhibition of historical buildings, homes and facilities, according to the foundation’s website.

Curran succeeded 32-year executive director Wally Broege upon his retirement in the summer of 2011. Broege, the first — and up to that point, the only — executive director of the organization had served in that capacity since 1979.

The Suffolk County Historical Society was founded in 1886 to preserve local history. It has been headquartered on West Main Street (between Court Street and Osborn Avenue) since 1930. Built on land facing the Peconic River donated by Alice O. Perkins, the historical society’s stately brick building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

The historical society maintains more than 25,000 historical artifacts documenting the history of Suffolk County, along with permanent and changing exhibits and a recently revamped gift shop, Curran said in a December interview. Under Curran’s leadership, the organization recently began a push for the community to get to know it as a history museum that’s open to the public. The society had giant banners and images were installed on the facades of the east and west wings in December declaring the building a history museum.

“We want to get people inside that building,” Curran said, which for too long had remained “anonymous” to too many people.

Curran also oversaw the reopening of the building’s east wing as the Noel J. Gish Sr. Gallery this spring. The 950-square-foot gallery, which had for years been used as “a big storage closet,” Curran said, cost more than $100,000 to renovate.

Curran said in May the historical society is pursuing a $900,000 handicap-accessible wing with restrooms, elevators and parking.

The board of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation said in a press release it is confident Curran will be “an excellent steward of the foundation’s mission” and hailed her as “a staunch advocate for preserving and understanding local history.”

Prior to being named executive director of the historical society, Curran had served since 2007 as its coordinator of public programs and exhibition development.