Tappan Library to get an addition

The Tappan Library has gone through several incarnations. It got its start in Shanks Village after the Second World War, and about fifty years ago moved to its present location in the former Moritz Funeral Home building on Main Street in Tappan. Since then, two additions have been constructed.

Even so, the library now finds itself filled to the point where a book added means a book removed, and there is no room for providing the kinds of services that our patrons expect. To resolve this problem, the Tappan Library bought the building next to it, known as the Livery Stable, or more informally among Tappan’s residents as Paul Melone’s barn.

As president of the Tappan Library board of directors, I presented the plans for expansion last week at the Orangetown Planning Board meeting. We are proposing to connect the stable to the library, and by doing so, substantially increase the library’s usable space. In order to accomplish this, the stable will have to be raised by two feet on a new foundation, which will bring it out of the flood plain and make the floors of the two buildings more on level with each other. The two floor connecting structure will be set back far enough to minimize the appearance of mass, and allow the two buildings to maintain their separate appearance. Because the buildings are in Tappan’s Historic District, care has also been taken to use appropriate materials.

When it is finished, the library will have more space for its children’s collection, and a new crafts space, an area for high school students, more meeting and exhibition space, and more space for our growing audio-visual collection and ebook collection, plus an area for the Tappantown Historic Society to house its collections.

This project has taken many years to get to the point where it is now, and we hope that with the permit process started, we will see its completion in the not too distant future.

Thano Schoppel, licensed real estate salesperson