The Essex Historical Society is celebrating its 60th anniversary with a year-long celebration kicking off in May. For six decades, the non-profit organization has been dedicated to preserving and protecting the town’s unique history and engaging and inspiring the residents of its three villages.

Celebrating 60 years is no small feat, so the society has decided to spread out the festivities with several different events to be held throughout the year. The first is the Dickinson Initiative Kickoff Event: Pre-Construction Party, which will be held on Friday, May 15 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Yellow Label Building at the Valley Railroad, located at 3 Plains Road.

For locals, the Yellow Label Building is part of the historic landscape of town. On May 15, visitors will get the rare chance to step inside the historic structure to see what was once home to the E.E. Dickinson Birch Mill Distillery, complete with original mechanical apparatus, oversized vats, and antique pressure gages. The birch was distilled here and reportedly added to liniment produced by the Dickinson Witch Hazel Factory to give the medicine a pleasant aroma.

“This event is a chance to see the inside of a magnificent old building that is part of the town’s past,” said Essex Historical Society President Sherry Clark.

The free event, held under a tent on the lawn of the building at the Valley Railroad Company (on land that is a park owned by the Department of Environmental & Energy Protection), will also include cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, a short presentation of the restoration goals of the Dickinson Initiative, witch hazel advertising art on display in the Jensen Gallery at the River Valley Junction building, and the Yellow Label Day Proclamation presentation by the town. All are invited.

“This is going to be a wonderful time to come out and celebrate the Essex Historical Society 60th anniversary and E.E. Dickinson Company, which was instrumental in shaping the town, the community, and the architecture of Essex,” said Essex Historical Society Vice President Susan Malan.

The E.E. Dickinson Witch Hazel Factory closed its doors in town in 1997, after operating in Essex for 130 years. It was a self-sufficient company maintaining a complete machine shop. The company even made its own wooden barrels to ship its product in bulk.

After the celebratory event at the Yellow Label building, the historical society, in conjunction with funding from the Valley Railroad Company, will do some much-needed renovations to the old building, including refreshing the windows, applying new paint, and taking the iconic Yellow Label signs off, via a crane, so they can be refurbished. The entire project is slated to take 12 months to complete. The signs will be put back on the building again on May 15, 2016, at another celebratory event, the culmination of the year-long anniversary.

The building will be opened as a passive museum of sorts, with exhibit panels adorning the historic wooden walls telling the story of the building’s past.

The historical society also has more events planned this fall to celebrate the 60th anniversary and to raise funds for the Yellow Label building project. For more information, visit www.essexhistory.org.