Peck Memorial Library - Marathon, NY - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

"The library has an interesting story to go with it. Mersena Brink Peck’s family was among Marathon’s first settlers. She arrived on the river from the Town of Union, in the Endicott area downstream, as a babe in her mother’s arms in 1799. Her father, Abram Brink, opened Brink’s Tavern at the Route 11 crossroads. She married George Peck who moved “out west” and made a fortune. When Mersena died, childless, at the age of 90 in Ohio, she remembered Marathon with a $20,000 gift to the village to “organize, furnish and maintain a free public library.”

The community petitioned her trustee, one James Tripp, to add an opera house to the building, which he did. The theater which seated 600, was used for years by the village for vaudeville and other shows and movies in the 20th century. The opera house closed in the late 1950s. "

Street address: 28 E. Main St. Marathon, NY USA 13803 County / Borough / Parish: Cortland Year listed: 1992 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture Late Victorian Periods of significance: 1875-1899 Historic function: Commerce/Trade, Education, Recreation And Culture Financial Institution, Library, Theater Current function: Education Library Privately owned?: no Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Secondary Website 2: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   09/05/2024 Markerman62 visited it