Hellebergh 250 Celebration
Current Projects
The Hellebergh 250 initiative brings local history to life through public events, historical interpretation, and community engagement. As communities across the nation commemorate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, our current projects highlight the unique stories of the Hellebergh region and the people who lived here during this pivotal era.
What is the Hellebergh?
The Hellebergh is the historic name for the region centered on the Helderberg escarpment and the communities that grew around it. Long before modern municipal boundaries existed, residents identified with the Hellebergh, a landscape of farms, villages, forests, and settlements stretching across what are now parts of Albany County and neighboring communities. Today, the name connects us to a shared regional history and the people who lived here during the Revolutionary era and beyond.
Van Aernam Family Living History Project
One of our most visible projects this year was participation in Altamont’s Memorial Day Parade, where historical interpreters portrayed members of the Van Aernam family, one of the area’s historically significant families.
Rather than presenting history solely through documents and exhibits, the project brings local people from the past into the present. Through period clothing, research, and public engagement, interpreters help residents imagine what life may have been like for families who lived and worked in the Hellebergh region generations ago.
The Van Aernam project is part of a broader effort to highlight the individuals and families whose stories contributed to the development of Altamont and the surrounding communities.
Altamont Community Day 2026
The next major project is participation in the Village of Altamont’s Community Day, scheduled for July 12, 2026.
Visitors will have the opportunity to learn more about the history of the Hellebergh region through interactive displays, historical interpretation, and conversations with volunteers and historical interpreters. The event will provide an opportunity to share ongoing research, introduce community members to local historical themes, and showcase the stories that make our region unique.
Looking Ahead
These projects represent only the beginning of a larger effort to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution through a distinctly Hellebergh perspective. Future initiatives will continue to explore the people, places, agriculture, culture, and community experiences that shaped this region and contributed to the broader American story.
As additional projects are announced, updates will be shared here.
Hellebergh 250 Committee: Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution
Hellebergh 250 is an ad-hoc committee of Historic Altamont, Inc., formed to memorialize and commemorate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution in an area known at the time as the Hellebergh. The name Hellebergh, or ‘clear mountain’, signifies the unique geologic feature we know today as the Helderberg escarpment, and an area extending west from the Normanskill and including, in Albany County, portions of the Towns of Berne, Guilderland, Knox and New Scotland, and the villages of Altamont and Voorheesville.
The committee hopes to create a narrative that will memorialize and commemorate the American Revolution by focusing on three themes unique to the Hellebergh area.
1. The Hellebergh was a Home Front: This region centered on a unique geologic feature, an escarpment, that, in the colonial era, was a home to men, women and children, European settlers, indigenous enslaved and free peoples, civilians and soldiers. What were their lives like and how did they live during that time in history?
2. The Hellebergh was a Breadbasket of the Revolution: Owing to its proximity to the Schoharie Valley, a rich agri-economy flourished in this area. The story of agriculture, and how it fed the troops that fought in the war during the pivotal Battles of Saratoga, known as the turning point of the American Revolution, and the conflicts in this area leading up to those battles, will be a little-told perspective unique to this region.
3. The Hellebergh was a Land of Bitter Conflict: As the New York State marker, in the Village of Altamont, commemorating this area as ‘Old Hellebergh’ states, the war in this area was indeed a brutal, years-long, clandestine, guerilla and civil war, which pitted associates, neighbors, friends and families against one another. What were the political, social, and personal elements of this conflict, and their effects on those who lived here?
Two approaches are planned that intend to make the activities of the Hellebergh 250 Committee rewarding for its members and for the community:
– A hyper-local focus – who better to commemorate the people inhabiting the Hellebergh in 1777 but the people inhabiting the Helderbergs in 2027, its residents, businesses, restaurants, wineries, breweries, performers and artists; and,
– Dynamic, experiential memorials and commemorations which, along with parades, reenactments, and markers, could feature culinary, landscape, performance and visual arts that both engage and involve the Hellebergh communities.
HELLEBERGH T-SHIRTS
Celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the
American Revolution with our exclusive commemorative tees.
This is the ‘Hellebergh’ toponym [what this area was known as during colonial times] from the 1767 Map of Rensselaerwyck, featuring an artist’s silhouette of the Helderberg escarpment and the Historic Altamont logo.
The Hellebergh was the historic name for the region that includes present-day Altamont and Voorheesville and portions of the hilltowns that are Berne, Guilderland, Knox, New Scotland and Westerlo.
Two colors / styles. Cotton-blend and pre-shrunk.
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