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1962                                                    Present Day

Something Old, Something New Something Borrowed, Something Needed: The History of The Greenburgh Public Library 

By Riley Wentzler & Felicia Barber

The Library:

There was a little blueberry 

There was a large raspberry 

Who wanted to go to the library

But they couldn’t because it wasn’t open.

Then in 1962, the Greenburgh Public Library was dedicated, in Dobbs Ferry.

The Library By: Jack Wills June 23, 2021

Although Greenburgh was founded in 1788, for much of its history, the town did not have an official public library. This development did not occur until 1962. This seems odd considering that Greenburgh had its first Town Hall in 1793, and its first church in 1823. This begs the question, “What did residents of Greenburgh do for books and research needs prior to the creation of the Greenburgh Public  Library?” The answer is, it was left to the individual villages to address this need. For example, the Village of Hartsdale opened a free public library in 1914 (Greenburgh Bicentennial Commission 1998 p. 53) and the Village of Ardsley opened a public library in 1923 (Calvi Spring 2020 p.1). Other villages quickly followed suit. Seeing that this solution to the Town’s book and research needs was insufficient , New York State passed a law ordering the Town of Greenburgh to create a library (https://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/libs/pldtools/chapterlaw/60-642-greenburgh.pdf)

It wasn’t until December of 1961 however, that The Town of Greenburgh finally allocated funds for the creation of its first Town public library and chose architects William and Donald Freed to construct it (Harrison 1962 p. Unknown). Rather than create an entirely new building, the Freeds, chose to expand an existing building. This building was on Dobbs Ferry Road, It had formerly been Dobbs Ferry Road School. This library was dedicated on January 8^th 1962 (Reporter Dispatch, November 15, 1962 p. Unknown), 100 people attended the dedication (Reporter Dispatch January 9 1962). However, the Greenburgh Public Library wasn’t officially granted its charter until August 24, 1962 (https://greenburghlibrary.org/welcome/aboutgpl). It stayed in this location until 1969 when it moved next to Town Hall on Tarrytown Road in Elmsford to a building which had been constructed by architect Max O. Urbann (Randall 1962 p. unknown).

In 2007, the old town hall at this location in Elmsford, referenced in our previous article, was demolished in order to allow the library to expand. This expansion was completed in 2009 (https://greenburghlibrary.org/welcome/aboutgpl).

Previous Slices of History include:

• Hastings’ Best and Brightest: Nobel Laureates of Hastings

• (8/1/2020) https://greenburghny.com/DocumentCenter/View/7065/Hastings-Best-and--Brightest---Nobel-Laureates-of-Hastings

• Tarrytown is Alive with The Sound Music: The Tarrytown Music Hall (1/30/2021) https://www.greenburghny.com/DocumentCenter/View/7525/Tarrytown-is-Alive-with-The-Sound-of-Music-Tarrytown-Music-Hall
• The Black Contribution to The Thin Blue Line: Greenburgh’s First African - American Police Officers (2/6/2021) The-Black-Contribution-to-The-Thin-Blue-Line (greenburghny.com)

• Rising from the Ashes: Greenburgh’s First Town Hall: Town Halls of the Past Part I (4/10/2021) Town-Halls-of-the-Past-Part-I (greenburghny.com) 
• Moving to Tarrytown, But Running Out of Room: Town Halls of the Past Part II (5/29/2021) https://www.greenburghny.com/DocumentCenter/View/7977/Town-Halls-of-the-Past-Part-II

• Back to Elmsford: Town Halls of the Past Part III (6/19/2021)
• Town-Halls-of-the-Past-Part-III- (greenburghny.com)

About the Authors:

We are both Assistant Town Historians at Greenburgh Town Hall and we are engaged to be married and are currently looking for permanent employment.

Riley Wentzler:

I was born and raised in a small rural town in central Pennsylvania. In high school, I took every honors course available including four years of Spanish. I received A’s in all of them. I graduated third in my class of 146 students. This brought me to Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Once there, I continued my trend of academic excellence. I graduated summa cum laude in Political Science with a minor in Spanish and a Master’s in Communication Studies, with a G.P.A of 3.94.  It was also there that I met my lovely fiancée, Felicia Barber. My Master’s in Communication has promoted public speaking, teamwork, and customer service. My Political Science degree has developed my research skills using computer-based tools and provided me with experience using the Microsoft Office products. My minor in Spanish has facilitated my bilingual capabilities. During my internship at Greenburgh, I created the petition for the State Roads project using website tools. My diverse education and areas of interest have provided me with a wide range of skills. I look forward to finding a career opportunity in business or government. To suggest a topic for next week’s article, you can contact me at assistanthistorian@greenburghny.com, or to help me find employment, you can contact me at rjwentzler413@gmail.com 

Felicia Barber:

I was born in New York City and raised in Hartsdale, New York. I graduated from Ardsley High School. I recently earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. It was here that I met my fiancé, Riley Wentzler. As a result of my academic excellence, I won a scholarship every year. I learned and applied many graphic design skills to projects during my summer internships and at school. I am proficient in using Adobe graphic design applications including Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. For my Identity/branding course at Edinboro, I created logos to appear on the tee-shirts of Physical Education majors. For a veteran’s upcoming event, I used a typeface to focus the reader to the soldier in the poster. For the State Roads Legislative Campaign project, I created the embedded graphic-photo that accompanied the petition I am looking for a job to utilize my skills as a Graphic Designer in an agency, print shop, company or government To suggest a topic for next week’s article, you can contact me at assistanthistorian@greenburghny.com. To learn more about my artwork or to help me find employment you can contact me at feliciadbarber@gmail.com.

Two Interviews with the authors:

https://riverjournalonline.com/around-town/a-love-of-history-and-each-other/13708/

https://wcbs880.radio.com/articles/news/stories-main-street-couple-cerebral-palsy-brings-manytalents-town-greenburgh

References

Calvi, G. F. (2020, Spring (NOT GIVEN)). FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK. The Beacon, p. 1.

Greenburgh Bicentennial Commission. (1998). Greenburgh: A Glimpse of Our Past. Greenburgh, New York: Greenburgh Bicentennial Commission.

Greenburgh Public Library . ((NOT GIVEN), (NOT GIVEN) (NOT GIVEN)). About GPL. Retrieved from greenburghlibrary.org: https://greenburghlibrary.org/welcome/aboutgpl

Harrison, D. (1962, August 15). Board O.K.s Library Bid Letting. Report Dispatch, p. Unknown.

New York State Legislature. (1960, April 18). To Establish a Public Library for that portion of the town located outside of the incorporated villages of: Tarrytown, Irvington, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings-onHudson, Ardsley and Elmsford. Laws of New York 1960 - Chapter 642. Greenburgh , New York, Westchester: New York State Legislature.

Randall, J. (1966, September 21). Town Names Architect for Greenburgh Library . Report Dispatch , p. Unknown .

Unknown. (1962, January 9). 100 Attend as Officials Dedicate Greenburgh's First Public Library. Reporter Dispatch, p. Unknown.