Lynbrook Public Library may be added to state and national registers of historic places

In 1985, the Lynbrook Public Library was threatened with demolition.

Designed by architect Hugh Tallant and erected in 1929, the 9,000-square-foot building, including a basement, was too small to accommodate its modern community, and librarians had to step over stacks of books to move around.

But residents voted, by a 61% majority, to save the historic library, rejecting a proposal to construct a new library at the former Village Hall on Merrick Road

Forty years later, the once-endangered building is on the pathway to be forever remembered.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on March 21 that the library was among 20 nominated locations to be on the state and national registers of historic places.

It was the only Long Island location nominated this year.

"We're excited about it," library director Robyn Gilloon said. "We feel the building in its grandeur should be preserved and getting this would ensure that."

Lynbrook Village Administrator John Giordano, who helped lead the campaign to save the original library, said the library receiving this kind of recognition was decades in the making.

In 1986, the board passed a resolution to extend the original library, spurred in part by the campaign's efforts.

The 11,000-square-foot ground-floor extension, which attempted to blend the historical character of the old building, was finished in 1992.

Giordano said he knew that to secure the library’s future, receiving landmark status was necessary.

Around 2020, he enlisted the help of Gilloon and adult librarian Kathleen Curran to ensure the library could meet historic register requirements.

"Just because the building is old and glorious, doesn't mean it qualifies to be landmark," Giordano said of the register requirements. "You have to be able to find some type of national or social significance a building has had in a particular area."

In Curran’s two years of researching the library’s history, she found the Lynbrook Public Library was originally conceived in 1909 by a local women’s group, The Old Friday Club.

Women’s clubs, many of which were suffragist and volunteer associations, played a major role in the nationwide establishment of public libraries at the turn of the century, Curran said.

"We can trace the origins of the Lynbrook Library to an era of tremendous social change represented by the development of women's organizations, the education of women, and its impact on society." Curran said in the preliminary application.

As the railroad began to bring more people to Long Island, a public library was needed to accommodate a growing population.

In 1928, the Village Board hired architect Tallant to design the Eldert Street building.

By then, Tallant and his partner Henry Beaumont Herts were prominent figures in New York City architecture, having designed iconic theaters like the New Amsterdam Theatre, the Lyceum Theatre, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Curran said Tallant’s designs were a prime example of early 20th-century Beaux Arts style, known for its grandiose decorative details that channel Italian Renaissance elements. 

The building features a formal entrance, large windows, and a bright and open reading room. Intricate and Classical details like exterior carved depictions of Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, oversees all who enter and exit the building.

The library should find out if it is approved for the registry in the coming months, Giordano said.

The original building, capturing a profound moment in time in U.S. history, continues to be an educational and cultural resource for the community — and part nostalgia for others.

"I go there, and I still see the children's desk when I was 6 years old, waiting for my mom to get out of work," Giordano said of his librarian mother. "It’s a good feeling, because I truly believe the library is an asset to the community."