In this digital age, it’s difficult to imagine being unable to easily access reading material. Yet without public libraries, communities found themselves in an information desert more than a hundred years ago.
Philanthropist and steel baron Andrew Carnegie changed all that in the mid-19th century, donating $40 million to build 1,679 libraries across the United States. He mandated certain rules, known as “the Carnegie formula,” that included public fundraising and proof that a library was needed.
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Port Jervis Free Library; Chatham’s library boasts a Tiffany window |
In honor of National Library Week, April 8–14 (which itself marks a milestone, celebrating its 60th anniversary this year), we look at Carnegie libraries that were built in the Hudson Valley:
- Catskill: 1902
- Kingston: 1903, closed 1974, reopened 2011 as learning center
- Nyack: 1903
- Port Jervis: 1903
- Yonkers: 1903, razed 1982
- Mount Vernon: 1904
- Chatham: 1905
- White Plains: 1908, razed 1973
- New Rochelle: 1914, closed 1979; now privately owned
- Ossining: 1914, new building constructed in 1968
- Saugerties: 1915
To view more photos, go to www.hvmag.com/carnegielibraries
