Yates County History Center

An official Path Through History Site! New York State's fourth oldest Historical Society, established on February 4, 1860. Today known as the Yates County History Center, its three cultural museums are adjacent to one another at 200 Main And 107 Chapel Streets in Penn Yan. Built in 1852, the brick Victorian Italianate mansion was for over one hundred years the home of the Oliver family of physicians. Nineteenth-century culturally themed-exhibits feature period furnishings, attire, personal artifacts, stories, memorabilia and images depicting Yates County and Penn Yan's early history. The museum includes a Native American room and other seasonally changing exhibits. The Oliver House Museum was the home of the Society since 1948. Next door, the L. Caroline Underwood Museum features 20th century period exhibits, including Yates County in the Civil War, and the Catherine Spencer Research Center housing historical archives that span the period 1780's through the present day.