Elting Memorial Library

Last updated
Elting Memorial Library
Elting Library.jpg
The Elting Library seen from across Main Street. The older portion of the library is to the right; the newer wing and main entrance are on the left.
Location New Paltz, NY
Nearest city Kingston
Coordinates 41°44′54″N74°05′05″W / 41.74833°N 74.08472°W / 41.74833; -74.08472
Builtcirca 1750 through 2006
ArchitectSolomon Eltinge
Architectural style Federal Style, Colonial
NRHP reference No. 04000432
Added to NRHP2004

Elting Memorial Library is the public library that serves the residents of the village and town of New Paltz, New York. It is located at 93 Main Street (also NY 32 and 299) in the village's downtown area. In addition to a collection typical of most college town libraries, Elting Memorial Library houses the Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection, the non-circulating genealogical and historical research collection, with a focus on the history of the Town and Village of New Paltz. This collection features "house books" that detail the history of local homes and buildings, including historic structures. The library gained notoriety in 2007 for a videotaped ghost visit that became the most popular online video about New Paltz.

Contents

History

Originally called the New Paltz Free Library, the library was founded by the New Paltz Study Club in 1909, and outgrew its space on lower Main Street by 1919. Native son and summer resident Philip Lefevre Elting purchased the "Old Elting Homestead" for library use in 1920. [1]

The old stone house was for many years called the Solomon Eltinge Homestead, [2] and though Solomon did purchase and live in the home, it was built by Thomas Owens. One of the earliest buildings on Main Street, it was erected around the same time as the Village of New Paltz was incorporated, and its location made it convenient for it to become a library in 1920.

The original building, considered the "final gasp of stone house architecture" in the area, [2] had new wings added on in 1962 and 1978, and was expanded again in 2006 (during which the bulk of the library's collection was relocated to temporary storage facilities). This expansion cost approximately $2.5 million, and much of the library's collection and its main circulation desk are housed in this most recent addition. [3] It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2004. It is located within the New Paltz Downtown Historic District.

Services and structure

As of 2019, the library serves some 14,000 area residents, circulating approximately 101,000 items a year. [4] A member of the Mid-Hudson Library System, it also offers a range of programming including speakers, story times, reading nights, free movies and area employment and tourism information. The library is also a key member of the One Book, One New Paltz program. Beginning in 2010, [5] the Elting library began receiving the bulk of its funding through a substantial increase from the Town of New Paltz taxes as a result of referendum on the issue. [6]

The Haviland Heidgerd Historical Collection

The library's historic collection houses a significant collection of materials relevant to the local area. According to the library's own web site, "It is considered to be one of the best local history collections in the Hudson Valley and is home to a wealth of primary, one-of-a-kind, local history documents. Residents, descendants of New Paltz’s founding families, visitors, scholars, and students use the collection’s resources to research area history and trace family and genealogical roots." [7] The collection includes over 10,000 newspapers, photographs, periodicals, and yearbooks that date back as far as 1860.

Governance

Elting Memorial Library is an Association Library. The library is governed by a board of directors which includes four officers and eight additional members. The board oversees a library director and staff.

As of March 2024, the president of the board is Richard Heyl de Ortiz [8] and the interim director of the library is Stephen Cook. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wappingers Falls, New York</span> Village in New York, United States

Wappingers Falls is a village in the towns of Poughkeepsie and Wappinger, in Dutchess County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 5,522. The community was named for the cascade in Wappinger Creek. The Wappingers Falls post office covers areas in the towns of Wappinger, Poughkeepsie, Fishkill, East Fishkill, and LaGrange. This can result in some confusion when residents of the outlying towns, who do not live in the village, give their address as "Wappingers Falls".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellenville, New York</span> Village in New York, United States

Ellenville is a village within the town of Wawarsing, Ulster County, New York, United States. Its population was 4,167 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosendale (CDP), New York</span> Hamlet & CDP in New York, United States

Rosendale is a hamlet located in the Town of Rosendale in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 1,285 at the 2020 census. It was also a census-designated place known as Rosendale Village until 2010, when the U.S. Census Bureau designated it Rosendale Hamlet. Some maps continue to list the place as just Rosendale. As of 2020, the "Hamlet" in the CDP name was dropped.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kinderhook, New York</span> Town in New York, United States

Kinderhook is a town in the northern part of Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 8,330 at the 2020 census, making it the most populous municipality in Columbia County. The name of the town means "Children's Corner" in the language of the original Dutch settlers (Kinderhoek). The name "Kinderhook" has its root in the landing of Henry Hudson in the area around present-day Stuyvesant, where he was greeted by Native Americans with many children. With the Dutch kind meaning "child" and hoek meaning "corner", it could be that the name refers to a bend in the river where the children are. The eighth President of the United States, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook and retired to it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haverstraw (village), New York</span> Village in New York, United States

Haverstraw is a village incorporated in 1854 in the town of Haverstraw in Rockland County, New York, United States. It is located north of Congers, southeast of West Haverstraw, east of Garnerville, northeast of New City, and west of the Hudson River at its widest point. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,323.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhinecliff, New York</span> Census-designated place in New York, United States

Rhinecliff is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located along the Hudson River in the town of Rhinebeck in northern Dutchess County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of Rhinecliff was 425.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huguenot Street Historic District</span> Historic district in New York, United States

Historic Huguenot Street is located in New Paltz, New York, approximately 90 miles (140 km) north of New York City. The seven stone houses and several accompanying structures in the 10-acre National Landmark Historic District were likely built in the early 18th century by Huguenot settlers fleeing discrimination and religious persecution in France and what's now southern Belgium. After negotiating with the Esopus Indians, this small group of Huguenots settled on a flat rise on the banks of the Wallkill River in 1678. The settlers named the site in honor of Die Pfalz, the region of present-day Germany that had provided them temporary refuge before they came to America. Archaeological finds indicate that the immediate area settled by the Huguenots was occupied by Native Americans prior to European contact. The site is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miami-Dade Public Library System</span> Public library system in Florida

The Miami-Dade Public Library System (MDPLS) is a system of libraries in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hills Memorial Library</span> United States historic place

Hills Memorial Library is the former public library of Hudson, New Hampshire, in the United States. It was erected in memory of Ida Virginia Hills by her husband, Dr. Alfred Hills, and her mother, Mary Field Creutzborg. The land had been previously donated by Kimball Webster for the express purpose of building a public library. The new building was designed by architect Hubert G. Ripley, built during the winter of 1908–09 and opened to the public on June 12, 1909. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places in 2012. The town of Hudson closed the facility on May 18, 2009, as the library collection was moved to the new George H. and Ella M. Rodgers Memorial Library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley-Whitman House</span> Stanley-Whitman House in Farmington, Connecticut, listed on the National Register of Historic Places

The Stanley-Whitman House is a historic house museum at 37 High Street in Farmington, Connecticut. Built ca 1720, it is one of the oldest houses in Farmington. A well-preserved saltbox with post-medieval construction features, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and National Register of Historic Places when the registry opened in 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Locust Lawn Estate</span> United States historic place

Locust Lawn is a surviving 19th-century farm complex situated on the bank of the Plattekill Creek on New York State Route 32, outside of New Paltz, Ulster County, New York.

Historic preservation in New York is activity undertaken to conserve forests, buildings, ships, sacred burial grounds, water purity and other objects of cultural importance in New York in ways that allow them to communicate meaningfully about past practices, events, and people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William D. Weeks Memorial Library</span> United States historic place

The William D. Weeks Memorial Library, also referred to as the Weeks Memorial Library, is a publicly funded, nonprofit library governed by the Town of Lancaster in Coös County, New Hampshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Paltz Downtown Historic District</span> Historic district in New York, United States

New Paltz Downtown Historic District is a national historic district located at New Paltz in Ulster County, New York. The district includes 147 contributing buildings, one contributing site, and eight contributing structures. It encompasses most of the portion of the village that was developed in the 19th century as it became the commercial center for a growing agricultural town. Located within the district is the separately-listed Elting Memorial Library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hudson, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Hudson is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, with a total population of 20,092 as of the 2020 census. Before its incorporation as a town in 1866, Hudson was a neighborhood and unincorporated village of Marlborough, Massachusetts, and was known as Feltonville. From around 1850 until the last shoe factory burned down in 1968, Hudson was a mill town specializing in the production of shoes and related products. At one point the town had 17 shoe factories, many of them powered by the Assabet River, which runs through town. The many factories in Hudson attracted immigrants from Canada and Europe. Today most residents are of either Portuguese or Irish descent, with a smaller percentage being of French, Italian, English, or Scotch-Irish descent. While some manufacturing remains in Hudson, the town is now primarily residential. Hudson is served by the Hudson Public Schools district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Paltz (village), New York</span> Village in New York

New Paltz is a village in Ulster County located in the U.S. state of New York. It is approximately 80 miles (130 km) north of New York City and 70 miles (110 km) south of Albany. The population was 7,324 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Paltz, New York</span> Town in the United States

New Paltz is an incorporated U.S. town in Ulster County, New York. The population was 14,407 at the 2020 census. The town is located in the southeastern part of the county and is south of Kingston. New Paltz contains a village, also with the name New Paltz. The town is named for Palz, the dialect name of the Palatinate, called Pfalz in standard German.

The Ella Johnson Memorial Public Library, located in Hampshire, Illinois, serves the approximately 16,000 residents of Hampshire, Burlington, Pingree Grove, in addition to parts of the neighboring areas of Elgin and Huntley. The Library covers a 100 square mile area in Kane County, including the Hampshire Township, plus areas of the Burlington Township, Plato Township, and Rutland Township.

Founded in 1916, the Columbia County Historical Society and CCHS Museum & Library collects, preserves, interprets, and presents the history, heritage, and culture of Columbia County, New York, and serves residents of all eighteen Columbia County towns and the city of Hudson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ossining Public Library</span>

The Ossining Public Library (OPL) is a public library in serving the village of Ossining, New York. The library serves Ossining's school district, including the town of Ossining and neighboring areas.

References

  1. "General 4".
  2. 1 2 Johnson, Carol A. "History: Elting Memorial Library". The Elting Memorial Library. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  3. "Estimated New York State Public Library Construction Needs Profiles 2006". New York State Library System. Archived from the original on 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  4. "Circulation 2019" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 6, 2021. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  5. "Annual Report to the Community" (PDF). Elting Memorial Library. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 5, 2011. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  6. "Elting Memorial Library - New Paltz, NY". www.eltinglibrary.org. Archived from the original on 2011-10-05.
  7. "Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection". Elting Memorial Library. Archived from the original on 2008-05-27. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  8. "The Elting Memorial Library".
  9. "Library Staff".