How We Started

The Friend of the Library’s desire to open and staff a year-round bookstore dates back many years. The plan began to take shape when The Friends received a generous grant from the estate of Patricia (Pat) Whitney, who died in 1999.

The goal that the funds be used to start a bookstore in her honor was kept alive by her sister, Leah Leonard. For logistical reasons, the Board wanted the store to be as close to the Central Library as possible.

In the early winter of 2002, the Board president, Ed Reilly, and his wife, Jean, were turning the corner from Clinton onto Union Street, just a few yards from the library parking lot, when Jean exclaimed, “Ed, the antique store on the corner is gone!”

They hurried home, Ed looked up the owner of 600 Union St., and called to ask if he was receptive to having a new tenant. He was.

The Friends needed to find a new home for Whitney Book Corner in Spring 2022. Working with Metroplex, The Friends found and secured 105 Clinton St., across the street from the entrance to the Central Library. The new location opened in May 2022.

(Excerpted from “Friends of the Schenectady County Public Library – 40 Years of Excellence”)