page_title: Briarcliff Manor Public Library
section_title: Current location
hierarchical_section_title: Briarcliff Manor Public Library / History / Current location
caption_attribution_description: English: The Briarcliff Manor Public Library c. 1990s, in the original train station. The circulation desk is pictured. These files were bequeathed to the BMSHS by the library director and uploaded here as part of my volunteer position as Wikipedian in Residence at the BMSHS.
context_page_description: The Briarcliff Manor Public Library is the public library serving the village of Briarcliff Manor, New York, and is located on the edge of the Walter W. Law Memorial Park. The library is a founding member of the Westchester Library System. It is staffed by a director and eleven employees, including reference and youth librarians, and is governed by a ten-member board, with a liaison to the village board of trustees. The library offers computer classes, book discussion groups, young adult programs, a children's room and a local history collection. The library building also houses the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society, the Briarcliff Manor Recreation Department, and the William J. Vescio Community Center.
  The library was founded in 1914 in the Briarcliff Community Center. Around 1921, the library was established as the Briarcliff Free Library, an association library within the New York State library system. From the building's destruction in 1929 and over the next thirty years, the library was without a permanent location, and was moved between sites, including public school buildings and the village recreation center.
context_section_description: On January 19, 1959, the library moved to its fifth location and first permanent home, the former Briarcliff Manor station originally on the New York City & Northern Railroad (later the New York and Putnam Railroad). The station had been built in 1906 by village founder Walter W. Law in the Tudor Revival style, as a replacement for a smaller station, which was moved to nearby Millwood. In its later operation as a station, the building was rarely used, and only four trains stopped there each day. Due to the railroad's tracks ending in the Bronx and requiring a transfer to continue on to Manhattan, many Briarcliff Manor residents would drive to Pleasantville or Scarborough, which had stations along lines ending in Manhattan, and more trains ran along those lines. The passenger railroad, then known as the Putnam Division of the New York Central Railroad, discontinued service in 1958, freeing up use of the building for the library.
  With closer proximity to schools, more parking, and double the availability of shelf space, the village purchased the former station for $12,500 ($109,600 today) and leased the building and its acre of land to the library. The library required $20,500 ($179,800 today) for purchasing and renovating the building; it raised $14,000 ($122,800 today) from village residents, with the remainder funded by the village board. On April 19, 1959, the refurbished building was dedicated and the village board named the street that led to the library Library Road. With its own space, the library increased its collection, hired more staff, and doubled its operating hours. Also in 1959, the library received its absolute charter, and transferred the charter in 1964 from a free library association to a fully tax-supported public library and thus changed its name from the Briarcliff Free Library to the Briarcliff Manor Public Library.
  In 1963, Briarcliff resident and artist Myril Adler proposed a series of exhibits of graphic art; the first showing was in October of that year and recurred each month thereafter, each with Sunday opening receptions. Exhibitors included Adler, Michael Ponce de Leon, Seong Moy, Rodolfo Abularach, Fritz Eichenberg, Jacob Landau, George Earl Ortman, Minna Citron, and Alfredo Da Silva. Exhibited works included etchings and engravings, woodcuts, cellocuts, lithographs, collage intaglios, and serigraphs. As a result of these exhibits, the library began a collection of prints donated by the exhibiting artists. In the library's small space, Adler displayed prints between shelves and in the youth and children's reading rooms.
  The library, which was 3,200 square feet (300 m²), was too small for readers and events; other significant problems included no wireless capacity and poor shelving and lighting. In 1980, a large interior renovation took place; former mayor Chester L. Fisher and his wife led a fundraising effort, raising $50,072 ($155,400 today). Construction started in March 1980 and included interior painting, new shelves, cabinets, and carpeting for the main room, a mezzanine on the south side, a relocated checkout desk and remodeled children's room, and a vestibule in the main entrance designed to match the original building. In 1981, the first section of the Putnam Division trackbed was repurposed as a trailway; the section ran from the library south to New York Route 117. The current 48-mile biking, running, and walking trail was completed in 2014, and consists of the South County, North County, and Putnam County Trailways. It stretches from Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx north to Brewster. In 1985, the library and the Briarcliff Lodge were among 60 sites given historical markers by Westchester County Tricentennial Commission. In 1995, village residents held a referendum for a new $1.8 million library of 10,600 square feet (980 m²) to be built behind the village municipal building; it failed by 13 votes, from the 871 cast. A 1996 proposal for a smaller building, costing $1.7 million, was rejected by 199 votes. From 1997 to 1999, major renovations took place on the building's interior a
caption: Circulation desk in the former station
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