As 2025 comes to a close, and with it my first year as Executive Director of the Reher Center, I have been reflecting on what grounds our work at the Center and anchors us in our mission to foster belonging through culture, community, and history. I keep returning to one small object in our collection: a metal intercom mounted on each floor of the historic bakery. It was part of daily life for the Reher family, a simple way to call between the shop and the home above it.
One afternoon in 1960, that intercom carried a call for help. Mollie Reher was working in the bakery when a man entered and tried to rob her. When she refused to open the till, he began hurling canned goods at her. Mollie shouted into the intercom to her sister Sadie, who immediately called the police. A passerby named LeRoy Williams—a 29 year old neighbor who lived on Ann Street—heard the commotion, rushed inside, and intervened, protecting Mollie until the police arrived.
metal intercom
Ann Street does not exist anymore. It was erased during urban renewal less than a decade later. But the intercom remains, holding the memory of neighbors watching out for one another, of everyday courage, and of a community that once moved through these spaces and made the neighborhood their shared home.
This small object reminds me why we do what we do. It is a lens into daily life, into relationships sustained across doorways and stoops, into the ways community is formed and reformed through ordinary, and sometimes courageous and loving gestures. And it is a reminder that museum work and preservation is not simply about saving buildings or objects. It is about preserving the stories that help us understand who we were, who we are, and who we hope to become.
house demolition during urban renewal
At the Reher Center, our historic bakery site offers precisely this kind of opportunity. It allows us to look closely at the Reher family’s life while also widening our view to the broader forces that shaped the Rondout and the Hudson Valley: immigration, labor, displacement, resilience, and community. Through this building, we see both the fragility and strength of the neighborhood, and we see how generations of immigrants shaped and continue to shape its character and vitality.
This past year, that work took many forms. Our Boundless Creativity gallery exhibitions highlighted the work of immigrant artists who call the Hudson Valley home but came here from around the world. Japan, Guyana, Israel, Argentina, Peru, China, Wales, Korea, Russia, Nigeria, Jordan, and the Dominican Republic were all represented. Their work echoed many of the themes embedded in our site: movement, reinvention, storytelling and belonging.
We welcomed students from second graders to SUNY Ulster Education Opportunity Program college students, inviting them to learn with us in the historic bakery and gallery. We heard from Tibor Spitz a Holocaust survivor who arrived in this country as a refugee, and from writer and Vassar professor Amitava Kumar, who shared reflections on immigration, language, and identity. Each of these voices in our programs and the musicians who filled our spaces with sound and story brought depth to our understanding of the region’s layered histories and contemporary realities.
Our preservation work also continued to advance with purpose. We completed a roof overhaul, restored the original Spring Street doors, installed storm windows to protect our newly restored originals, and undertook expert conservator and engineering studies to better understand our building’s and collection’s needs. These efforts strengthen our ability to steward the site responsibly and to expand the spaces we can share with the public.
Spring St. doors now and then
Throughout 2025, we activated the site in every way we could including exhibitions, public programs, films, site tours, conversations, and community partnerships. Whether gathering for a preservation discussion, a PlaceCorps presentation, an author talk, or a film night, our community continued to show us that this building is a living space where people come together, exchange ideas, and see themselves reflected in the stories we tell.
As we look ahead, we remain committed to opening more of the building to the public, deepening our interpretation, and improving accessibility so that everyone can enter our story with dignity. Preservation, for us, is inseparable from building belonging. It is a way of honoring the neighborhood’s history while building a more just and welcoming future.
The intercom that once carried a plea for help now carries a different message: that community matters, that neighbors shape one another’s lives, that even the most ordinary objects can hold extraordinary meaning.
As we close this year and look toward the next, I am filled with gratitude for our visitors, our artists, our scholars, our partners, our volunteers, our staff, our Board, and every supporter who believes in this work. Together, we are nurturing a cultural resource that sustains our community, amplifies overlooked histories, and builds a more just and welcoming future.
Thank you for being part of our story.
With appreciation,
Kira Manso Brown
Executive Director
Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History
