The Village of Montgomery board made a big announcement during its September 1 meeting: Brianna Nonnon, a resident and manager of the Borland House, will be serving as the new village historian. Craig Furey, the former historian, was recently deployed for military service and resigned from the position. Nonnon is thrilled about her new role, and she looks forward to preserving and promoting the village’s history.

Nonnon grew up in the Town of Monroe before moving to the Village of Montgomery in 2018. She graduated from Monroe-Woodbury High School in June 2017 and obtained her esthetics license from Capri Cosmetology in October 2017. Following Capri, Nonnon worked as a beauty advisor for Ultra Beauty in Middletown, then became an arch expert for the store’s Benefit BrowBar. She hopes to open her own beauty salon someday.

“After I graduated from high school, I went into Capri Cosmetology for my esthetics license, because I liked facepainting and special effects work. I was taking daily classes and graduated on Halloween 2017,” Nonnon said on September 11. “I got the job at Ultra Beauty that same year, and I was a retail beauty advisor. Then the BrowBar in Middletown opened up, and I switched over there in early 2018. That was cool because their brand has a bunch of history behind it. They were founded in the ‘70s, so I had to learn about what products came out during that time and use that as a sales point.”

Nonnon originally moved to the Village of Montgomery to be closer to her job at Ultra Beauty. Since then, she has become very active in the community and volunteers throughout the Montgomery area. She is the manager of the Borland House Inn & Restaurant, where she provides guest service and organizes numerous events. She frequently assists the Historical Society of Walden and Wallkill Valley with its events and programs, such as the paranormal investigation of the Walden T. Jacob House last August. She does face painting for VoicesUnited4Change, a nonprofit dedicated to helping children with mental health challenges. Throughout all these experiences, Nonnon has made many connections with many people and organizations, giving her more volunteer opportunities and new ideas for her own events.

“I volunteer for VoicesUnited4Change every year and do their facepainting. I have connections with different event coordinators because I go out and facepaint, so I’ve actually been building up a repertoire,” Nonnon said on September 13. “I’ve been doing the most random volunteer work, whether it’s face painting or helping people put together events. I’ve been doing this since high school, and I’ve been with VoicesUnited4Change since I was 14.”

Nonnon loves learning about and engaging with history; she enjoys world history, including Ancient Egypt and the Middle Ages, and the American Revolution. She grew fascinated with the Village of Montgomery’s history and applied for the village historian position in 2024. At that time, the village board appointed Furey to the position, and he served as historian for two years. Following Furey’s deployment, the board reached out to Nonnon and appointed her to the position on September 1.

“I’m super excited to be the village historian; I get to go to the museum and do research. Someone reached out to me about one of their buildings, so I already have my first research project,” Nonnon said on September 11. “There’s so much archival history, but that’s fun for me. I get to research people’s properties or the names of their family members, and find all this information and present it to them. And I just think that it’s nice, because I’m able to help preserve that information.”

As village historian, Nonnon envisions the Montgomery Village Museum as a community place where residents can learn more about their local history. She plans to host various events in the village, including accessible walking tours, children’s activities, and movies at the museum. She also wants to work with the town’s Dial-A-Bus and establish a museum day, giving residents the opportunity to visit all of Montgomery’s museums.

“I want to work on starting a museum visit day with Dial-A-Bus. It would start here or over in Walden, and it could include a few other municipalities,” Nonnon said on September 11. “The Dial-A-Bus would go through all the different municipalities here in the Town of Montgomery. It would only cost one dollar to ride the bus.”

Above all, Nonnon hopes to make residents, especially children, excited about their village history. She encourages everyone to visit and support their local museums.

“With all the development that’s going on around these areas, it’s really important to remember everything that we’ve been through to get to this point and that some buildings should be preserved,” Nonnon said on September 11. “If you’ve been to this museum, go see Walden. If you’ve been to the museums up here, go to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library or Lyndhurst Manor. We have so many historic museums, and this area has a lot of history when it comes to the military, big-name businessmen, and more. There’s so much to learn and you have to go out, go support it, and go learn it.”