Elting Memorial Library
Encyclopedia
The Elting Memorial Library is the public library
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...

 that serves the residents of the village and town of New Paltz, New York
New Paltz, New York
New Paltz is a town in Ulster County, New York, USA. The population was 14,003 at the 2010 census. The town is located in the southeastern part of the county and is south of Kingston, New York. New Paltz contains a village also with the name New Paltz...

. It is located at 93 Main Street (also NY 32
New York State Route 32
New York State Route 32 is a north–south state highway that extends for through the Hudson Valley and Capital District regions of the U.S. state of New York. It is a two-lane surface road for nearly its entire length, with few divided and no limited-access sections. From Harriman to Albany,...

 and 299
New York State Route 299
New York State Route 299 is a short but important state route entirely within Ulster County, New York, United States. Centered around its interchange with the New York State Thruway outside New Paltz, it provides access from that road to the popular recreational attractions of the Shawangunk...

) in the village's downtown section. It houses a collection of "house books" that detail the history of local historic structures
Huguenot Street Historic District
The Huguenot Street Historic District is located near downtown New Paltz, New York, approximately north of New York City. The seven stone houses and several accompanying structures in the district were built in the early 18th century by Huguenot settlers fleeing discrimination and religious...

, and gained notoriety in 2007 for a videotaped ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

 visit that became the most popular online video about New Paltz.

History

Originally called the New Paltz Free Library, the library was founded by the New Paltz Study Club in 1909, and outgrew its space on lower Main Street by 1919. Resident Philip Lefevre Elting purchased the "Old Elting Homestead" for library use in 1920.

The old stone house was originally called the Solomon Eltinge House after its original owner and builder, and was part of the expansion of New Paltz from its original settlement on Huguenot Street. One of the earliest buildings on Main Street, it was erected around the same time as the Village of New Paltz
New Paltz (village), New York
New Paltz is a village in Ulster County in the U.S. state of New York. It is about north of New York City and south of Albany. The population was 6,818 at the 2010 census.The Village of New Paltz is located within the Town of New Paltz...

 was incorporated, and its location made it convenient for it to become a library in 1920.

The original building, considered the "final gasp of stone house architecture" in the area , had new wings added on in 1962 and 1978, and was expanded again in 2006 (during which the bulk of the library's collection was relocated to temporary storage facilities). This expansion cost approximately fourteen million dollars, and much of the library's collection and its main circulation desk are housed in this new wing. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 since 2004. It is located within the New Paltz Downtown Historic District
New Paltz Downtown Historic District
New Paltz Downtown Historic District is a national historic district located at New Paltz in Ulster County, New York. The district includes 147 contributing buildings, one contributing site, and eight contributing structures. It encompasses most of the portion of the village that developed in the...

.

Services and structure

As of 2008 the library serves some 13,000 area residents, circulating 60,000 items a year. A member of the Mid-Hudson Library System, it also offers a range of programming including speakers, reading nights, free movies, and area employment information.
Beginning 2010, the Elting library began receiving 82% of its funding through a substantial increase from the Town of New Paltz taxes as a result of its "Referendum 414" vote.

Historical collections

The library houses a significant collection of historical materials relevant to the local area. According to the library's own web site, "It is considered to be one of the best local history collections in the Hudson Valley and is home to a wealth of primary, one-of-a-kind, local history documents. Residents, descendants of New Paltz’s founding families, visitors, scholars, and students use the collection’s resources to research area history and trace family and genealogical roots." The collection includes over 10,000 newspapers, photographs, periodicals, and yearbooks that date back as far as 1860.

Governance

The library is governed by a Board of Directors which includes four officers and eight additional members. The board oversees a library director and staff.

As of 2011, the President of the Board is Carol Roper; the director of the library is John Giralico. Current Board/Staff list

Elting Library Ghost

A week before Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...

 in 2007, a possible haunting was discovered. A librarian opening the building in the morning found the door had been left ajar. Review of security tapes revealed a 30-second stretch at approximately 3:30 in the morning of what staffers later described as anomaly moving across the room toward the door, eventually disappearing through the east wall. The library staff inspected the camera but could not find any technical problems that could easily explain the blurry image, which they described in published reports as an anomaly, spider, shadow, or dust mote.

As the security tape showed an area within the original Solomon Eltinge House, curious librarians researched its history in the library's Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection. Two documented deaths had occurred in the house, in 1899 and 1908. The ghost video itself was uploaded to YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

 on March 21, 2008, and has garnered more than 300,000 views as of October of that year - approximately fifty times the population of the village in 2000.

The timing of the alleged haunting furthered interest in the incident, although it was not widely known until several months after the door was found ajar. The library had recently erected a Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in many cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality...

 altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...

 in conjunction with a community-wide reading of Bless Me, Ultima
Bless Me, Ultima
Bless Me, Ultima is a novel by Rudolfo Anaya, published in 1972. It is part of a trilogy along with Heart of Aztlan and Tortuga. It is included in the list of most commonly challenged books in the U.S...

as part of the "One Book, One New Paltz" program.
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