It was a full house at the Town of Crawford Senior Center last Friday for their anticipated bicentennial.

Residents, government officials, guest speakers and others gathered to celebrate 200 years of Crawford being established as a town. Prior to establishment, the Town of Crawford was originally part of the Town of Montgomery, but when many settlers moved to Crawford for farming, it became its own entity.

Legislator Robert Sassi is originally from Middletown, but has called Crawford his home for more than 20 years. This, and his current fill-in role as Town of Crawford historian, made it easy for him to put together this monumental event.

An array of food awaited guests when they walked in, along with tables of different artifacts of Crawford’s history for people to look at. There was also a giant white and red colored cake and a Crawford trivia quiz.

Some questions included “What was the early name of Route 17K?” and “Who donated the present day library to the Town of Crawford?”

Sassi explained to attendees how they finalized the event.

“As I sat down with the supervisor, I was thinking, “Well, what can we do?” We started finding artifacts and things that date way back. Some of the things here date back to the 1700’s [and then] up until modern times. They are just absolutely fascinating,” said Sassi to the crowd.

They hosted two speakers, including author and physical therapist Fritz Meier, a born-and-raised Crawford resident who authored the history book “Around Crawford (Images of America).” The other lecturer was author and historian Alex Prizgintas. Both speakers provided guests with a little bit of history on Crawford.

They also buried a time capsule in the front of the building that’s going to be opened in 2073. Billings Memorial, which is located right in town, donated a marker to signify the capsule. Some items included were a few Crawford UFO patches, a Crawford Police patch, a dollar bill with Sassi’s name on it, and more. Everyone was welcome to place something in the capsule.

Newly painted historic markers were also spotted when walking into the senior center. Though they had been missing from town for a few weeks, they were in good hands. Local Boy Scouts restored them for their community project, making them bright and blue.

Town of Wallkill representatives were also in attendance to show support and present a certificate for Crawford. This included Town of Wallkill Supervisor George Serrano and Town of Wallkill Historian Tom Nosworthy.

“The Town of Wallkill does hereby recognize and congratulate the Town of Crawford for its success, achievements and reaching its bicentennial status; and looks forward to working with Crawford to assist in its continued success and growth in the next 200 years,” said Nosworthy.

Sassi thanked Supervisor Charles Carnes, the Community Services Department, town board and more for their collaboration on this successful event.