Garden City Village Historian John Ellis Kordes to Speak at the Friends of Adelphi University Library 17th Annual Fall Lecture

The  Friends of the
Adelphi University Library are holding their 17th Annual Fall Lecture, “A.T.
Stewart: The Origins of Garden City in 1869 and Adelphi’s Arrival in 1929,” featuring
Garden City Village Historian John Ellis Kordes on Sunday, November 4, 2012 at
the Ruth S. Harley University Center, 1 South Avenue, Garden City, NY. The
lecture, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 3:00 p.m.,
followed by a drawing for the winners of the Friends’ annual raffle.

 
It was his love of history and the village where he grew up
that encouraged John Ellis Kordes to work with the Village of Garden City’s
history since 1989. Mr. Kordes graduated from Garden City High School and
Adelphi University. His underlying commitment and
outstanding contribution to historical preservation and education in Garden
City helped him earn the position as the official Garden City Village Historian
in 1996. Since then, he has contributed even more to preserving the history and
furthering education in the village.

 

Kordes has used his professional skills in photography and
his knowledge of local history to capture Garden City’s history in two
documentary films, “The Long Island Motor Parkway” and “A.T. Stewart’s Garden
City” and share it with a larger audience; the latter is still used as a
teaching aid in the schools, helping new generations of Garden City residents
understand their history. Apart from documentary-making, he has also made
significant contributions in written history; he has penned articles and
newspaper columns for local newspapers. He has authored and published two
editions of his book “Visions of Garden City,” a gorgeous coffee table book
including hundreds of photos and detailed history.

 


Along with archiving the history of Garden City in
documentaries and books, he created the Garden City Heritage Tour Maps for
walking tours, created postcards, calendars and a poster featuring the Village
of Garden City and often gives historical tours of Garden City’s Cathedral of
the Incarnation. He is a popular speaker and conducts lectures and historic bus
tours of Garden City and even started an adult education program on Garden City
history. For all his contributions, he was recently honored by the Oyster Bay Historical
Society during the inaugural reception to salute “Long Island’s Top Advocates
for Historic Preservation and Education.”

 

For his talk, this well-known Garden City historian will cover the fascinating origins
of Garden City when it was founded by A.T. Stewart in 1869, and also the
arrival of Adelphi University when it moved from Brooklyn to Garden City in
1929, becoming the first private institution of higher education on Long
Island.

 
For further information, please call the Adelphi Cultural Events
Hotline at (516) 877-4555. To learn more about or to join Friends of Adelphi
University Library, please call Gregg Scheiner at (631) 988-0727 or visit:
libraries.adelphi.edu/about/friends.php.

 

About
Adelphi University:
Adelphi is a world class, modern university with excellent and highly relevant
programs where students prepare for lives of active citizenship and
professional careers. Through its schools and programs—The College of Arts and
Sciences, Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Honors College,
Ruth S. Ammon School of Education, University College, Robert B. Willumstad
School of Business, Schools of Nursing and Social Work—the co-educational
university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as professional
and educational programs for adults. Adelphi University currently enrolls
nearly 8,000 students from 41 states and 60 foreign countries. With its
main campus in Garden City and centers in Manhattan, Hauppauge, and Poughkeepsie,
the University, chartered in 1896, maintains a commitment to liberal studies in
tandem with rigorous professional preparation and active citizenship.