98-100 Grand Street, Newburgh, NY
Grand Street has always been a neighborhood of cultural and religious institutions as well as homes. In the center of this block between First and Second Street was the 1814 Covenanter Church and the 1876 Newburgh Free Library. Many comfortable townhouses surrounded them, most built in the early and mid-19th century.
The Newburgh Free Library building located at 100 Grand Street was built in 1876 in high Victorian style. It was built for $28,000 to serve the Enlarged City School District. Librarian Charles Estabrook, a former Newburgh Free Academy teacher and a former member of the Board of Education supervised a collection of 10,421 volumes. By 1909, the library's collection had grown to over 36,000 volumes. In 1976, the library moved to 124 Grand Street in a new building constructed by the Board of Education. The original library building still stands and currently houses the Hudson Valley Christian Church.
