While Harmony Hall undergoes a major restoration project throughout the summer and into the fall, the spotlight was recently turned on Village of Sloatsburg Historian Harrison Bush.

Sloatsburg videographer Phil Kral and Harmony Hall Curator Geoff Welch have been quietly working on a series of several interviews with the Jacob Sloat descendent. Principle photography was completed on July 9, with the finished product due to include historical art work, maps and family photographs related to the Sloat family history.

“Harrison remembers so many details about his family and their friends in Sloatsburg, we are happy to get his information recorded,” said Welch about working with Bush, who is a descendent of Henry Ransom Sloat, whose father was Jacob Sloat, builder of Harmony Hall.

Jacob Sloat, famously for Sloatsburg, was an industrialist and entrepreneur who built the Sloat Mill in the early 1800s along the railroad tracks and Ramapo River in central Sloatsburg, which, at its height around 1852, produced some 8,000 pounds of cotton twine per week that was shipped to the New York City market.

“It was excellent working with Harrison Bush,” said Phil Kral, who shot the video of Bush. “I remember Mr. Bush as a skilled substitute teacher in Sloatsburg Elementary and Suffern High School. It was marvelous hearing about his childhood and family life in Sloatsburg.”

The Sloat family sold and ceded slices of land throughout Sloatsburg for many of the village’s landmark buildings, including where the Sloatsburg Public Library now stands and the location of the United Methodist Church of Sloatsburg, directly across from the Village Hall. The Sloat family at times also contributed materially to the construction of these early buildings.

Harrison Bush’s mother was born and raised in the building that is now Rhodes North Tavern, which was originally built as a wedding gift by the parents of Bush’s grandfather and grandmother when they were married.

Welch said that he and Kral interview Bush as various historical locations throughout the village, including the Sloatsburg cemetery and Harmony Hall.

The Friends of Harmony Hall are supporting the expenses of the production as an important documentary on the history of the village. Welch said he expects the video to be completed this summer.

Harmony Hall now serves as a center for Sloatsburg cultural and community activities, including the popular annual Highland Bluegrass Festival and Victorian Holiday. After the restoration project is completed, Harmony Hall will act to promote the history of Sloatsburg as well as serve as an educational center for this part of New York’s Ramapo River Pass and Highlands environments.

Original photos provided courtesy of Geoff Welch.