Justice
New York State's Curious, Century-Old Law Requiring Every City and Town to Have a Historian
Is this still a good idea?
I grew up on Long Island, in the kind of town where students paint Halloween murals on local storefronts and dress up as wrapped gifts to march in the holiday parade. To me, our town historian, with his dress-like-your-favorite-Christmas-Carol-character parties, was just another marker on the small-town quaint-o-meter.
As it turns out, Sayville, my hometown, has an official historian because it's the law.