[LIB2655]On Monday the new Pruyn library, an auxiliary of the Young Men's Association Library, will be formally opened to the public. The building occupies the site on the corner of North Pearl Street and Clinton Avenue of the house in which the late John V.L. Pruyn, Chancellor of the university, was born in 1811. [NY Times, April, 1901]
4 comments:
Wow!!! How exciting. We're building 5 branch libraries in Albany, opening in fall of 2009 and 2010. We're heartbroken about the demolition of the Pruyn in 1963 to make way for the entrance ramp of 787. In a newspaper article of the time, Mayor Corning said that it had no historic significance. Uggg . . . what we wouldn't do to have it back!
As a 16 yr old black teenager it was I weep when this beautiful structure was demolished. I watched as the wrecking ball struck the building. My dad had taken me there as a 6yr old. Later when I was 8 yrs old I use to always enter through the "adult" entrance and wall back to the kids section. I loved the smell of the books and pipe smoke. I think smoking was allowed back then in the 1950's. Wm Kennedy's, O Albany, features a photo of the library in the 1st chapeter of the book. Apparently Mayor Corning did not like the Pruyn family. I thought the bldg was older then 1909.
I loved the Pruyn library. The side entrance into the children's section was magical. It was a tower, like a castle and I believe there was a spiral staircase inside the tower, at least that is how I remember it. I borrowed my first library book there when I was four. The adult section was fascinating too. There were tall ladders and then above the ladders was a balcony that went all the way around and there were tall ladders up there too. The whole building just ignited a child’s imagination, even before opening a book. It’s so sad that it was destroyed.
My Aunt Myrtle McNeil was the librarian of the Pruyn Library and I borrowed books there thoughout the 1950s. It was a beautiful building - just another victim of Rt 787 and the City of Albany's continuing disregard of our historic buildings.
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