Our Town - 1960

Our Town - 1960 is a short (22 minutes) film that gives a glimpse of life in Patterson in 1960. The film is followed by Limestone Gulch, which features Patterson children dressed in western garb, and was shot at the then abandoned Boot Hill and along Main Street (NYS Route 311). The films are worth viewing because of their unique historical value.

The film is presented here in two versions. In 1995 the film was transferred to VHS tape and the first steam was made from that tape. The original source was already flawed and blurry and compressing it to make the web stream version resulted in the loss of more video detail.

The film was digitally restored and remastered to DVD disk in August 2006. The digitized version was created from the original 16mm film, and received careful treatment, including a physical cleaning of the film, color correction, contrast correction, and scratch and grain reduction. The result is more detailed and brighter than the VHS version, and should exceed the look of the original film when it was first shot in 1960. The second stream was made from the restored film. The first one minute and 10 seconds of the film is jittery due to some damage to the film's sprocket holes. The remainder of the film does not have this problem.

VHS and DVD copies of the two versions of the film are available at the Patterson Library, and all are much better quality than the streams presented here.

The Patterson Town Clerk's office also has a limited supply of copies of the DVD for sale to the public for a small fee. Please contact the Town Clerk's office at Patterson Town Hall for more information at 845-878-6500.

The film is available in two streams:

Wanted! - Historic Patterson is searching for the film Our Town - 1957. If you know the wheareabouts of the film, please contact us via the email links on our Topics page. Like the 1960 film, the 1957 version is a rare glimpse at life in Patterson decades ago. If the film still exists, we would like to explore the possibility of restoring it.