Leland Torrence wrote:
> I'd love to hear about favorites of the preservationeers, both libraries and bookstores.
Dear recovering reader,

For a time more than 30 years ago I lived in Moravia, NY. About as 
obscure a place as one can find to live in NY, unless one counts 
Sempronius. The town is known for two things, one is Millard Fillmore 
(with absolutely beautiful Fillmore Glen State Park where my maternal 
grandfather worked w/ the CCCs) and the other is the not too distant 
Summerhill Nudist Colony. What it is not known for is the town library. 
The Powers Library erected in 1880 on Main at Church Street is the 
oldest building in continuous use as a library in NY State. As I 
remember it is a small stone building in a farmer Gothic style. It is 
NOT the building shown on their website that I remember.

More than thirty years ago on one day as a young stonemason I wandered 
into the library. I was immediately struck by the upper balcony that was 
filled with books from the 19th century. Not seeing anyone present to 
dissuade me from what appeared to be an open but otherwise unoccupied 
library I quickly bypassed the rack of most recent best sellers and most 
read paperbacks and wandered up the stairs. I was dumb to look at the 
splines of the books and their titles. I do not remember any title in 
particular. Eventually I pulled one off from a shelf and opened it to 
view black-line engravings of scenes on tropical islands. Then I met the 
matronly librarian. "What are you doing?" "Looking at the books." 
"Nobody ever looks at these books. Put it back."

I did put the book back. Never have gone back to that library. Have ever 
since thought it so strange to have such a library as a resource to a 
community that was forbidden to access. Though I do know of other such 
libraries, and I do know full well why they would be restricted in 
access. And yet, neither was this particular collection of books well 
protected.

Here is a bit of information from the web:

Dr. Cyrus Powers, the son of Judge Cyrus Powers, was born in Sempronius 
July 18, 1814, on a farm a little east of Sayles Corners.  We cannot 
give the exact date of the removal of his parents to the village of 
Moravia but it must have been before 1826, for in that year Millard 
Fillmore, afterwards President of the United States, married his 
father's sister, Miss Abigail Powers.  Judge Powers owned and resided on 
the lot on which the residence of Mr. G. Jewett now stands.  (Note: 
Owned and occupied in 1960 by G. Welton Fickeisen, publisher of the 
Moravia Republican-Register.)  At that time Mr. Jewett's father owned a 
part of his present lot and the adjoining lot on which now stands the 
Methodist parsonage.   The house at present occupied by Mr. Charles 
Lackey and recently removed to Smith Street was he residence of Dr. 
Powers father, the one in which Millard Fillmore and Miss Powers were 
married.  This it is that Dr. Powers' early life is connected with the 
history of the nation; interwoven with the life and growth of our 
village.  Here he received his education prior to his medical studies.  
These he pursued in Geneva, N.Y., graduating from its Medical College in 
February, 1845.  He settled in Moravia and in 1846 married Miss Cornelia 
Carter then residing on the east shore of Cayuga Lake about four miles 
south of Aurora.

He collected during his life one of the largest and most valuable 
private libraries to be found in central New York.  On its shelves are 
found the works of the standard authors in every department of Science 
Art, Government and Literature; Histories of almost all lands; poetry; 
magazines, some popular in their character, others professional and 
technical; works of fiction by such writers as Dickens, Bulwer, Scott, 
Thackery, Maryatt, etc.  He also had a large collection of choice 
engravings, autographs of noted men and women; and in numismatics a 
splendid assemblage of coins, some of great antiquity.

~~

Years after my stay in Moravia I lived in Washington, DC and got to 
touch such 'rare' NY books as those in the Powers Library. You can sit 
in the reading room and request them to be delivered to your seat. I 
read more of the 19th century regional NY literature in Washington than 
I ever got to see in NY State. (Despite my also having access as a 
county resident to the Cornell libraries.) For a brief time at the 
Library of Congress I was able to visit with friends who had desks 
hidden in the carols. Then I was able to freely gawk at all of the books 
I could possibly desire to ogle.

I like all bookstores, large and small. I enjoy going into a bookstore 
and simply wandering around to absorb the scent of so many many 
different ideas, perspectives, lives and dreams that are held there. For 
a brief time it takes me out of myself. I end to feel happy and satiated 
that I have felt something of a larger life than my own.

I also like to go to the Salvation Army store to scout for books.

][<en

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