6417 Montgomery St. Rhinebeck, NY 12572

Rare Availability In Prime Rhinebeck, NY

Rare availability in the Village of Rhinebeck! 2,200 sqft street level with 5,000 sqft lower-level retail space in a historic building in the main shopping & dining section of Rhinebeck.

A History of Starr Institute

Residents and visitors of charming Rhinebeck are very familiar with the beautiful brick building located at 6417 Montgomery Street, known as the Starr Institute. It is very important to understand the historical significance of this building and the role it has played in the Rhinebeck community for such a long period of time.

The Origin of Starr Library

The 1858 Report and Catalogue of the Reading Hall and Circulating Library states that in July 1857, a plan was presented to establish a Reading Room and Library in the Village of Rhinebeck. This idea, which came from Mrs. Mary R. Miller, the granddaughter of General Philip Schuyler of Albany, was tested by renting and fitting two rooms.

Members of the community donated around 666 bound volumes, 150 pamphlets, and 339 magazines from their private collections for this project. Some of the names on the donor list include the likes of Lewis Livingston, William B. Astor, Dr. George Lorillard, Henry Delamater, William Kelly, and Ambrose Wager.

The Reading Room and Library were successful for two years, so Mrs. Miller decided to buy two parcels of land on the west of Montgomery Street and she invested $15,000 to build The Starr Institute. It was named in memory of her late husband, William Starr Miller, an honorable man and a New York Congressman who died in 1854.

The Starr Institute was incorporated by the Legislature of the State of New York in April 1862. Then, a month later, Mrs. Miller deeded the building, grounds, and furnishings to the Board of Trustees of the institute. The purpose of the Starr Institute was to provide facilities that would allow the people of Rhinebeck to improve intellectually and morally. For the following 113 years, Starr Institute was home to the town’s circulating library.

The Growth of the Starr Institute

At its conception, there were only two rooms, one dedicated to books and the other dedicated to reading. With the new two-story building, things improved quite a bit. The Starr Institute had a 60×40 single story lecture hall, a dining room in the basement, a reading room on the north side of the entrance, a room on the south side dedicated to circulating the books, and a room behind it for women to hold sewing circles and do missionary work.

Upstairs, the Starr Institute features a 30×50-feet room that overlooks the street, where the Standard book collection was held. These were the books that people could only read in the building, so they couldn’t borrow them.

In 1862, the Starr Institute had 16 trustees, including Mrs. Miller, William Kelly, Lewis Livingston, Joshua S. Bowne, N.W. Judson, William B. Platt, Freeborn Garrettson Sr., William R. Schell, Homer Gray, Theophilus Gillender, Ambrose Wager, Theophilus Nelson, MD, James A. A. Cowles, Andrew J. Heermance, and Henry M. Taylor.

The board of trustees included prominent members of the community who met once a year and held occasional special meetings. The first president of the board was William Kelly, the owner of Ellerslie.

Honoring Mary R. Miller – 12th Anniversary

On January 13, 1874, the 12th anniversary of the Starr Institute, Mrs. Miller was honored by the community for her generosity in founding this amazing home of education. They published a 77-page booklet and a list of the book collection available in the library, which included growth statistics.

From this booklet, we learn that in 12 years, the library book collection grew from 1,813 volumes to 3,227 volumes. New names were added to the list of donors, including Louis Ehlers, Miss Mary Garretson, Julia Olin, Rutsen Suckley, E. D. Platt, and William Bergh Kip.

Mrs. Miller was the main benefactor of the Starr Institute until she died in 1881. Her annual financial contribution to the library varied depending on the deficit and when she died, she left $20,000 to the library to help sustain it.

The Starr Institute from 1894 to 1937

In the years that followed Mrs. Miller’s passing, the annual president’s reports to the board make note of building improvements that were either necessary or had been completed. They also made note of increases of library use, book collection growth, and the limited financial resources of the corporation.

In 1894, they applied to the Board of Regents in the State of New York because they wanted to change incorporation. Once they got their new status, they were eligible to receive State funding.

From 1906 to 1911, a portion of the Starr Institute building was leased to the Y.M.C.A organization, so a remodeling was necessary to accommodate the needs of the Y.M.C.A and its programs. They added a 25X50-feet pool at the back of the building, the basement was enlarged, and they added game rooms and bowling alleys as well.

Then, in the year 1937, the board president at the time, William Kelly Brown, wrote a brief history of the Starr Library. In 75 years, the library only had 6 presidents, 5 secretaries, and 3 treasurers at its service.

It’s important to note that through the years, the Starr Institute didn’t only serve the community as a library, but also as a community center. The auditorium was also used as a gym, where youngsters played basketball and both the Girl and Boy Scouts met there except during the winter.

They also hosted movies, plays, and concerts in the auditorium, and service organizations also used the upstairs room to hold meetings. When the war came, the Starr Institute was used by the Red Cross to make bandages and care packages for the men on the front. The amenities that were installed during the Y.M.C.A lease continued to be used by the town’s youth until the town’s educational plants provided more adequate facilities.

The Starr Institute from 1959 to 1979

When 1959 came, the Starr Institute was among the first on the list to join the Mid-Hudson Library System, which would give the library greater opportunities to borrow books and learn from other libraries and their operations.

By 1964, the board trustees met every quarter and in the following year, they decided to limit the number of three-year terms to two consecutive years. This same year, they re-activated the Friends of the Starr Library, an organization focused on supporting library activities by raising funds. The first book sale of the Friends of the Starr Library took place on the sidewalk and it raised $84. This would go on to become an annual event.

4 years later, it became obvious that the community had outgrown the Starr building and the space it provided. In 1972, a study showed that the building wasn’t serving the community as it should. The book collection was so large it could no longer be contained in the main floor rooms, parking was a big issue, and the building needed huge improvements if it wanted to continue as a library.

So, in 1974, they started a big fundraising campaign for a new building close to the village center complete with recreation facilities. When they had enough funds, they purchased 14 acres on Rhinecliff Road. According to the plans, 12 acres would be turned over to the town and village for recreational purposes, while the remaining 2 acres would be dedicated to the new library.

At the bequest of Mr. Thomas Thompson of Boston, the Town and Village Boards, and the generous community, the new building for the Starr Library located at 66 West Market Street opened its doors for the first time in June 1979. 3,000-square feet were dedicated to updated facilities, which improved reading enjoyment tremendously.

Then, two community rooms and storage space dedicated to the Rhinebeck Historical Society were completed on the lower level. The new Starr Library building earned recognition as one of the finest facilities of the Mid-Hudson Library System.

The Starr Institute Building Today

Over a century-and-a-half later, the Starr Institute building stands reimagined as a thriving commercial property in the heart of the Village of Rhinebeck.

MWest Holdings, the building’s owner, has preserved its original Gothic revival façade while transforming the interior and amenity areas into attractive commercial space. Since the early 2000s, the building has housed many successful shops and restaurants for the community to enjoy.

Today, the building’s original theater remains home to Upstate Films, an iconic non-profit cinema showing independent and international films since 1972. Hundred Mile, a modern home design showroom representing the most influential and innovative brands worldwide in furniture, lighting, and designed objects, currently occupies the top floor of the building.

After ten years of occupancy from Liberty Public House, an American pub with live music, the ground floor and lower-level spaces in the building are currently available for lease, presenting rare availability in an excellent location. They await their next chapter of history at the Starr Institute building to begin!

FOR LEASE


    6417 Montgomery St.
    Rhinebeck, NY 12572
    Call or Text: (914) 262-2598


    Bryan Lanza
    blanza@houlihanlawrence.com

    Carolynn Dittmann-Zinn
    cdittmann@houlihanlawrence.com

    Starr Institute

    6417 Montgomery St.
    Rhinebeck, NY 12572
    Call or Text: 845-516-8122


    Bryan Lanza
    blanza@houlihanlawrence.com

    Carolynn Dittmann-Zinn
    cdittmann@houlihanlawrence.com

    FOR LEASE