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The Moffat Library, officially Moffat Library of Washingtonville, serves a population of 25,000 people in the village of that name in
Orange County, New York Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 401,310. The county seat is Goshen. This county was first created in 1683 and reorganized with its present boundaries in 1798. Orange ...
, as well as the surrounding towns of Blooming Grove, Hamptonburgh and New Windsor. It is located in the center of town, at the intersection of NY 208 and NY 94. It boasts one
Louis Comfort Tiffany Louis Comfort Tiffany (February 18, 1848 – January 17, 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art NouveauL ...
-designed
stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
window and one Belcher mosaic stained glass window, although they were not part of the library's original design.


Construction

It was named after
David Moffat David Halliday Moffat (July 22, 1839 – March 18, 1911) was an American financier and industrialist. Moffat was one of Denver's most important financiers and industrialists in late 19th and early 20th century Colorado, and he was responsible fo ...
, a native of Washingtonville who later made a fortune in railroads, mining and finance in
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
and settled in
Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
. In 1885, nearing the age of 50, he decided he wanted to do something for his hometown, and so commissioned the library for the site of his boyhood home, the
trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...
his father Samuel had established at the crossroads in 1811. The library would be named for his mother Catherine as well as his father. He declared its purpose to be "the diffusion of useful knowledge". New York
architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
George Edward Harney George Edward Harney (1840–1924) was a late 19th-century American architect based in New York City. Biography George Edward Harney was born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1840. He received his early training in the office of local engineer Alonzo L ...
designed a building in the then-popular Queen Anne style, to be built of
brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...
made in nearby Goshen. The finished building included a Howard clock on the top, Greek
column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
s and an
auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...
with seating for 375.


Dedication

The formal dedication took place on April 25, 1887. However, there was a library, but no books. The Moffat Library Association was formed to establish a library and reading room, and the following year after it had acquired
bookcase A bookcase, or bookshelf, is a piece of furniture with horizontal shelves, often in a cabinet, used to store books or other printed materials. Bookcases are used in private homes, public and university libraries, offices, schools, and bookst ...
s, some books were shelved. By 1899, when the stained glass windows were installed, the library's holdings consisted of 2,000 volumes, most donated by Moffat.


Library

In 1994, the library was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
as well as its state equivalent. The next year, the Moffat Library Association changed its status from private to public. Today, the library holds more than 29,000 items with a circulation of 170,000. The library was forced to close and relocate its collection in 2011. Flooding from
Hurricane Irene Hurricane Irene was a large and destructive tropical cyclone which affected much of the Caribbean and East Coast of the United States during late August 2011. The ninth named storm, first hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 2011 At ...
and
Tropical Storm Lee The name Lee has been used for seven tropical cyclones worldwide. In the Atlantic, it replaced the name '' Lenny''. In the Atlantic: * Tropical Storm Lee (2005), a short-lived, minimal tropical storm * Tropical Storm Lee (2011), a strong tropical ...
reached the level of 6 feet (2 m) in the basement, damaging parts of the building's electrical and heating systems. A local corporation donated space for the collection to be relocated to in the two months library officials said it would take to complete repairs. More than six years later, on September 16, 2017, the library reopened its doors for the first time since being flooded by Hurricane Irene. The building featured new additions, renovations and restorations of historical items such as its
Tiffany glass Tiffany glass refers to the many and varied types of glass developed and produced from 1878 to 1933 at the Tiffany Studios in New York City, by Louis Comfort Tiffany and a team of other designers, including Clara Driscoll, Agnes F. Northrop, an ...
windows and clock tower.


See also

*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Orange County, New York List of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Orange County, New York This is intended to be a complete list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Orange County, New York. The locatio ...


References


External links


Official site
{{authority control Library buildings completed in 1887 Public libraries in New York (state) Buildings and structures in Orange County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Orange County, New York Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)