In 1876, a reading room opened on the middle floor of a three-story building at 112 Main Street in Port Chester. Lambert's Dry Goods Store occupied the ground floor, and the Mamaro Lodge of Masons met upstairs. Rent from those two tenants kept the library running in its first years. The building was a gift from Jared Valentine Peck, a Port Chester lumber and building supplies businessman who served in the New York State Assembly and the United States Congress.
That reading room grew into today's Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library at 1 Haseco Avenue, which turns 150 this year. Rye Brook did not exist when it opened, and it would not exist for another 106 years. The village incorporated on July 7, 1982, and at the time it was the first new village in New York State in 54 years, according to Rye Brook's own adopted budget history.
So the library Rye Brook now shares came out of a century of private gifts in Port Chester, and Rye Brook became a partner by agreement in 2008. The anniversary events in November celebrate both parts of that story.
A library that paid its own way from day one
The way the library started set the pattern for everything after it. Peck gave more than space. He gave a building that earned income, and the store and lodge rents covered the costs. On April 14, 1877, the institution was incorporated as "The Library and Reading Room of the Village of Port Chester." Later, the Village of Port Chester agreed to fund the operating budget, and the name became The Port Chester Public Library.
Public money ran the library day to day, but private bequests paid for nearly every big physical change over the next hundred years. The library's 150th-anniversary booklet traces each step back to a named donor.
Every expansion has a name on it
| Year | What changed | Who paid for it |
|---|---|---|
| 1876 | Reading room opens in the Brundage Building, 112 Main Street | Jared V. Peck donated the building; tenant rents covered operations |
| 1925–1926 | New building at Westchester and Haseco Avenues, designed by McKim, Mead & White, dedicated June 26, 1926 | $60,000 bequest from Captain William Dixon Burnham, plus proceeds from selling the Brundage Building |
| 1963 | Addition of 9,000 square feet, dedicated to John W. Diehl | $270,000 gift from the remainder of Diehl's estate |
| 2012 | Teen room, multipurpose meeting room, expanded children's room with a program room, new elevator | Bequest from Douglas and Elise Lefferts |
Some of these benefactors had unexpected backgrounds. Burnham, born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1847, went to sea as a young teenager. He became a shipmaster and made his fortune with the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, which carried sugar from Hawaii. He and his wife, Matilda, settled in Port Chester for the rest of their lives. When he died in 1919, his will funded two libraries: Port Chester's and one in his Connecticut hometown. The trustees used his bequest and the money from selling the Brundage Building to buy land at Westchester and Haseco Avenues. They hired McKim, Mead & White to design the building, and the firm's original drawings are now at the New York Historical Society.
Diehl joined the board of trustees in 1895 and served as president from 1909 until 1944. The addition paid for by his estate bears his name. The Leffertses owned Jack's Fabrics, a well-loved downtown Port Chester business. Their multimillion-dollar bequest paid for the 2012 renovation, which opened up the three-story, 18,900-square-foot building without adding any floor space.
By the time Rye Brook incorporated in 1982, the Haseco Avenue building had stood for 56 years and already carried the Diehl addition. Rye Brook's share in it came later, through a different route.
How Rye Brook came in: a statute and a contract
Rye Brook became a partner in 2008, through two documents. First, an act of the New York State Legislature, signed by the Governor on August 6, 2008, renamed the Port Chester Public Library the Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library. That same year, the two villages signed an inter-municipal agreement with the library to fund its operating and capital budgets. The agreement ran for ten years, and according to the library's history, it was renewed in 2018 "due to the success of the arrangement."
The partnership is also built into the board. Under the library's bylaws, the board must have between 7 and 13 trustees. Seats are split by residency to roughly match each village's share of the funding: about 65 percent Port Chester residents and 35 percent Rye Brook residents. The Port Chester Village Board appoints two trustees directly and the Rye Brook Village Board appoints one. Each village's mayor sits on the board as a non-voting member.
The current board roster lists 13 trustees. The officers are Veronica O'Connor, president; Paul Zaccagnino, vice president; Lisa Simon, treasurer; and Ellen Mutino, secretary. Both mayors are listed as ex officio members. The library is an association library for both villages, and any resident of either one can become an association member by getting a library card, according to its history page.
The footnote in the bylaws sums up the history: the library's founding act dates to 1877 and was amended in 1894, 1924, 1961 and 2008. Rye Brook appears in the most recent of those five laws.
The anniversary year so far
The 150th celebration began earlier this year with an opening day. The library's program for it listed a cake and ribbon cutting with the library board and village officials, an opening address by board president Veronica O'Connor, Scrabble, a "Mocktails and Masterpieces" painting session, cupcake decorating, and refreshments donated by Neri's Bakery. The board's March 24 minutes called it "wonderful and very well attended."
Albany marked the anniversary too. State Senator Shelley Mayer sponsored Senate resolution J01654 honoring the library, and it was adopted March 5, 2026.
Two public events remain in the anniversary year, and both fall on Saturdays in the first half of November.
Saturday, November 7: the open house
The library's open house at 1 Haseco Avenue runs through the day:
- 10:00 a.m. Music with Mr. Kurt, an interactive family program for toddlers, preschoolers and children in grades K–2
- 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Puzzle Swap: take a puzzle, leave a puzzle, for adults, teens and children
- 11:00 a.m. Balloon Buddies: read, play and get a balloon animal, all ages
- 11:30 a.m. Create Beaded Earrings for adults and teens; each participant makes one pair and helps make a second pair to donate to a women's shelter. Registration required.
- 2:30 p.m. Joe the Magic Man, a family magic show for kids ages 6 and up
- 3:30 p.m. Bookmark Craft for adults and teens. Registration required.
To register for the earring or bookmark sessions, stop by the Information Desk or call (914) 939-6710, extension 103. The two crafts and the swap are the only parts of the day aimed at adults and teens, and the crafts need registration. Families with young children have the morning music session, and the magic show covers the early afternoon.
Saturday, November 14: the gala, with a November 2 deadline
The 150th-anniversary gala runs from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Harrison Meadows Country Club, 123 North Street in Harrison. Tickets are $175, and cocktail attire is requested. The Patch event listing describes dinner, charcuterie, raffle baskets and a silent auction.
The deadline comes well before the event. Ticket sales end Monday, November 2, and the library will not take walk-ins. You can also pay by check, made out to "Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library Gala." Mail it to the library, attention Director, at 1 Haseco Avenue, Port Chester, NY 10573, along with your name, address, phone number and email. If you can't attend, the library is accepting donations in honor of the anniversary through its website. For questions, call (914) 939-6710 or email [email protected].
The gala is a fundraiser, which fits the library's history. Peck's rental building, Burnham's bequest, Diehl's estate and the Leffertses' renovation were all private gifts, and a silent auction in Harrison extends that 150-year line of private support to a library Rye Brook now helps fund.
Living in Rye Brook often means learning which parts of daily life cross the village line, and the library on Haseco Avenue is one of them. If you'd like to talk about the places and institutions that come with an address here, Tara Siegel is glad to help. Schedule your Westchester consultation.
