Warner Library (Tarrytown, N.Y.)

Portrait of DeWitt Clinton, Warner Library.

Portrait of Worcester Reed Warner.

Portrait of Cornelia Blakeman Warner, Warner Library.

Portrait of Cornelia Blakemore Warner.

Portrait of Helen Blakemore Warner, Warner Library.

Portrait of Helen Blakemore Warner.

The story of Warner Library begins with that of the Warners, a prominent local family. In the 1920s, Worcester Reed Warner and his wife, Cornelia Blakemore Warner undertook the building of a library, the construction of which they funded, as a gift to the citizens of Tarrytown and North Tarrytown (now Sleepy Hollow). The Warners even got Tarrytown to move a house that was on the selected site for the library.

Construction started in 1928. The Warners engaged architect Walter Dabney Blair to design the library building. Blair, also designed the public Library in Charlottesville, Virginia, several buildings on the grounds of the University of Virginia campus, and the bathhouse at Kingsland Point Park in Sleepy Hollow.

The first Board of Trustees was organized with prominent residents serving as members. A charter was issued for the library by the New York State Board of Regents on January 15, 1929. In recognition of the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Warner, the Library Board determined that the new library should bear their name. The library was dedicated on February 22, 1929. The Library’s mission was expressed by Worcester Reed Warner, “The measure of any community’s culture ... is the books it has and reads. Therefore, helpful books should be made accessible to all.”

The Warners traveled extensively throughout Europe. On one trip through Italy, they found a beautiful bronze panel which was once part of a wealthy Florentine estate. The panel depicted the crowning of Venice as the Queen of the Adriatic; it weighted well over a thousand pounds. The Warners purchased the panel and promptly had it shipped back to Tarrytown to be installed on the front door of the library. Mr. Warner, a designer of fine precision instruments, designed the hinges on which the panel swings. He also designed the globe encircled by the twelve signs of the zodiac that illuminates the Library’s entrance.

Mr. Warner lived to see the opening of the library, but died later that same year while traveling in Germany with his wife. After his death, Mrs. Warner and their daughter, Helen Blakemore Warner, continued their interest in the Warner Library and remained active as benefactors of many community causes.

The portraits of the Warners hang in the reading room of the library.