Huntington Library to celebrate 100th year Saturday

Jul. 30—The Huntington Library and Park will celebrate its centennial Saturday, Aug. 7 at 4:30 p.m. in the park near the Dietz Street entrance.

During the party, the library will give plants away to the first 100 attendees, will give away tote bags, coin purses and Band-Aid holders with the library's logo on them, will feature a talk about the library's history by City Historian Mark Simonson, and will serve cupcakes and drinks donated by Stewart's Shops, according to Library Director Tina Winstead.

"It's really the 100-year celebration plus one," Winstead said. "It really should have been held last summer, but because of the COVID restrictions we didn't do it. We didn't want to put any people at risk, so we decided to do the celebration on Saturday the seventh."

In addition to the celebration, the library will be the sponsor of the Meet Me on Main Street festivities Aug. 7. In between the musical performances, someone will read statements about the library and the audience will have to decide whether they are fact or fiction, Winstead said.

She said the celebration has been four years in the making, and just as the celebration was delayed a year by outside forces, so too was the original opening of the library and park.

Henry Huntington donated his parents' house and five acres of land to the city to be used as a library and park in 1917, Winstead said. However, with the start of World War I, supplies were too scarce to do any renovating, she said. There was also a flu pandemic in 1919 that hindered the opening of the library.

"This building was used as a Red Cross hospital during the flu pandemic," Winstead said.

Huntington then redesigned the house to be used as a library, she said.

"There have so many changes in the past 100 years," Winstead said. "It used to only be about books, where someone came into the library to take out a book and leave. These days, it's more of a community center."

The technology has also changed. It went from books, to CDs or audiotapes, to downloading an audio book onto a phone or tablet, she said.

She said the library, which was expanded in 1959 to house three floors, has two rooms community groups use to hold meetings, one on the second and one on the third floor. The library houses 39,000 volumes, including several dozen in Winstead's office.

"This is the local history reference room," she said.

The library has 9,000 card holders and on average more than 300 people visit the library daily, she said. This summer's reading program is also the library's largest group of summer readers with 145 kids, she said.

To determine how the library could be better utilized, the library board hired a company to complete a building assessment to see how the library can expand its square footage without adding onto the building, she said.

"I want access to these beautiful windows downstairs," Winstead said pointing to the long windows behind her. Downstairs, the windows are covered by bookcases lining the walls.

She also wants to update the library's interior.

"The 1970s happened to this library, with drop ceilings and wood paneling on the walls," she said. "I want to let the sunlight come into the rooms."

However, the renovations will be done after park renovations are completed, she said. To get enough land for the park Huntington donated to the city, he bought houses around his parents house and tore them down for the park, Winstead said. He hired a landscape architect to design the park, which included a rotunda in the upper park that was torn down, and many evergreens.

"I don't know if any are still standing in the park," she said.

The library board hired the Stimson landscape architecture firm of Cambridge, Mass., to redesign the Huntington Park, Winstead said.

"They just won the best landscape architecture award from the American Society of Landscape Architects," she said. "The firm is really, really great. They honored Henry Huntington's plan from 100 years ago."

She said they also incorporated some ideas from a blueprint that was created a few years after the park was built.

"They really emphasized 'The City of the Hills' theme in the design," she said.

She said the design incorporated hills, the Susquehanna River's edge and more. The design, which can be viewed on the library's website, will keep the sledding hill for kids to use in the winter, will include a labyrinth, picnic area and natural playground. She said bids were due on Aug. 12 for the first phase of the renovations.

Vicky Klukkert, staff writer, can be reached at vklukkert@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7221. Follow her @DS_VickyK on Twitter.