Rye Library Sets to Raise $2 Million to Fund Restoration, Insure Future
The Rye Free Reading Room has begun a capital campaign to raise the big bucks – $2 million – to "restore and improve" its home of the village green.
Here is how the library describes its campaign:
"The Board of Trustees seeks to raise $2,000,000 to restore and improve the Library’s historic landmark building. The Board is committed to respecting the beauty and history of the original 100-year-old building while adapting it to twenty-first century uses. In keeping with our mission to be a dynamic gathering place for the community, we are dedicated to providing the best spaces and services to the residents of Rye.
Welcoming meeting areas
New meeting spaces, personal spaces, and small group study spaces invite the community in for a chat or to finish a research project. Friends enjoy their coffee by the expansive atrium window, patrons read the paper by the fireplace and teens prepare for the future in private tutor rooms.
(PHOTO: Ready to give? Donation instructions are below.)
Center of the community
Open doors and open spaces bring thousands of residents from all over Rye to browse our collections, study, and socialize. Each year the Library hosts over 33,000 people through the nearly 1,000 programs offered. With the Westchester Library System’s network, the Library circulates over 239,000 collections items to our patrons.
A spectacular two-story atrium and window overlooking the Blind Brook lets in light and brings in the outside. Visitors will enjoy comfortable seating in the newly transformed 1,400 square feet of space. Not only will the atrium be the gathering place to meeting your friends – your living room on the Village Green – but the additional flexible public spaces will allow the library to offer up to 250 more programs per year to over 3,000 attendees. The show-stopping atrium sets a new tone for the library as we envision the next century of library service."
Ready to donate? If each household in Rye gave $400, the library would hit its goal… or some could just donate a $2 million dollar home… or someone who has done spectacularly well could… you get the idea…
