44°
TUCKAHOE , N.Y. One hundred years ago, a group of ladies who were members of the Women's Club of Eastchester set up a lending library on the second floor of the then-brand new village hall.
The Tuckahoe Free Library had fewer than 2,500 books when it began at village hall, now the Generoso Pope Foundation building.
Now library officials, town and village officials are hoping members of the community who know and love the library will help kick off a year-long celebration of 100 years of the Tuckahoe Library.
The community is invited to join the celebration to be held on Thursday, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The library will return to its roots for the party, which will be held at the Generoso Pope Foundation building and will feature live music and birthday cake.
"We want everyone to come out and help us celebrate," said Library Director Swadesh Pachananda, who also said the library is already putting together a calendar of different events to celebrate its first 100 years.
"We will have many events this year, even a battle of the bands for the teens," Pachananda said.
After its humble beginnings at the former village hall, the library was given a charter to become a public library in 1927. It moved to its present location on Columbus Avenue in August 1979.
The library now boasts a collection of more than 87,000 documents, close to 60,000 of which are books for adults and children.
In addition to computers, and Wi-Fi, the library has a lending library of music for your iPod, a program to learn foreign languages and a newly created lending library for e-books.
There is also a full calendar of events every month that includes the adult summer reading program, pajama story time for kids.
More than 70,000 visits were made to the Tuckahoe Library in 2010, the library said.
Pachnanda, who just took over as director of the library last week, said that no reservations or pre-registration is needed to attend the celebration.
"We are hoping the whole community will come out and help us celebrate," Pachnanda said. "We will be looking forward to seeing you then."
Click here to follow Daily Voice Bronxville and receive free news updates.
