The Rushmore Memorial Library, also known as the Rushmore Memorial Building, is located at the junction of

NY 32 New York State Route 32 (NY 32) is a north–south state highway that extends for through the Hudson Valley and Capital District, New York, Capital District regions of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is a two-lane sur ...

and Weygant Hill Road in Highland Mills, New York, United States. It is a small

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

stone building constructed in the 1920s with a donation from Charles E. Rushmore, a local resident for whom

Mount Rushmore Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (Lakota: ''Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe'', or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dakota ...

is also named. It served as the Town of Woodbury

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

until the mid-1980s, when a larger modern library was built. Today it is the headquarters of the town historical society. It was listed on 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 ...

in 2008, after two previous efforts in the 1980s failed.

Building

The library is a one-story three-by-three-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

structure faced in locally quarried uncoursed puddingstone and topped with a

Mission-style The Mission Revival style was part of an architectural movement, beginning in the late 19th century, for the revival and reinterpretation of American colonial styles. Mission Revival drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century ...

ceramic-tiled

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

that overhangs the building on all sides and covers the front steps as well. A stone chimney, similar to the wall, rises from the west side. A

wheelchair ramp A wheelchair ramp is an inclined plane installed in addition to or instead of stairs. Ramps permit wheelchair users, as well as people pushing strollers, carts, or other wheeled objects, to more easily access a building, or navigate between ar ...

leads into a rear entrance; a short set of stairs to the front. Inside, there is one single room with a large stone

chimney breast A chimney breast is a portion of a chimney which projects forward from a wall to accommodate a fireplace. Typically on the ground floor of a structure, the masonry extends upwards, containing a flue which carries smoke out of the building through ...

and

fireplace A fireplace or hearth is a structure made of brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a room. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficiency, depending on the design. ...

and

mahogany Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Unive ...

bookshelves. Other original wooden trim and furnishing remains. There is a bronze

memorial plaque A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other ...

with a poem by Jane Rushmore Patterson, Rushmore's daughter. The basement is fully excavated.

History

Woodbury's public library began in the years following

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

as a small collection of books kept first on a shelf at the local drugstore and later moved to a grocery store and the telephone company office as it got larger. Jane Patterson encouraged her parents to help build a permanent home for the library, and they bought the land and put up the money to build it. The

deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferring ...

stipulated that the building and property remain in use as a library or some related function, or it would revert to the Rushmore family. Howard Gregory, a young local war veteran and architect whose father's firm had built the Rushmore home in 1906, designed the library and oversaw its construction throughout 1924. One of his early renderings is displayed in the building today. His use of uncut stone was in keeping with both the principles of the

American Arts and Crafts movement American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. Its ...

and other nearby rustic stone architecture, such as the

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mos ...

at the F.F. Proctor estate a few miles away and the structures built for Harriman and Bear Mountain

state parks State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

and the new

gated community A gated community (or walled community) is a form of residential community or housing estate containing strictly controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles, and often characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences ...

of Tuxedo Park. Charles Rushmore died in 1931, and eight years later the library would be formally renamed in his memory. At the same time it was deeded to what was then the Highland Mills Common School District. In 1951, that district was one of several merged into the new Monroe-Woodbury Central School District. The library remained under the new district's control for five years, until in 1956 the school district transferred it back to the town. It became Rushmore Memorial Public Library, the Highland Mills branch of the town library, in 1958. It was a charter member of the regional Ramapo-Catskill Library System when that was established the next year. In 1966, all volunteer services at the library were ended. The wheelchair ramp was added in 1970, with a window converted to a door in the process. Fifteen years later, in 1985, the town built a newer, larger library facility, and it briefly considered whether to keep the original building or not. It was decided that the historical society would keep collections related to local history there. At that time, the historical society had tried twice to get the library listed on the National Register, but both applications failed. In 2008, with help from New York's Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, they were successful.

References

External links

Woodbury Historical Society
{{portal bar, Architecture, Hudson Valley, National Register of Historic Places Library buildings completed in 1923 Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Buildings and structures in Orange County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Orange County, New York 1923 establishments in New York (state)

Building

History

See also

References

External links