So, while we’re postcarding through beautiful downtown Scotia, New York, we have to visit everyone’s favorite library. Part of the Schenectady County library system, it’s in the Abraham Glen House, which dates to the 1730s and is as charming as can be. Abraham Glen was a grandson of Alexander Lindsay (the family later took the Glen surname), one of the founders of Schenectady and son of Johannes, hero of the aftermath of the Schenectady Massacre. The house remained in the Glen family for decades, then was sold to the Collins family in 1842. They farmed the land and drew ice out of what would become Collins Lake. At the end of the family line, the village of Scotia acquired the property as a park in 1924, and the library opened in the old home around 1930.
Pretty much everyone in Scotia wants to believe there is a tunnel between this house and the Glen-Sanders Mansion, as a precaution against Indian attacks. Perhaps.
It is now impossible to imagine how many hours of my youth were spent in this tiny library. I’m sure there was a time when I would have recognized every spine on the shelves, every record in the collection, even the paperbacks in the spinning rack by the door.
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