Larchmont Library Children's Room Will Get Major Redo

by Judy Silberstein

(November 20, 2006) The children’s room at the Larchmont Public Library is slated for a major renovation, thanks in large part to a significant bequest from the estate of George and Margaret Burchell, long-time residents of Mamaroneck Town. (See Obituaries: Margaret Burchell.) Larchmont Trustee Jim Millstein announced the news, and the next day, Library Board President Miriam Curnin filled in the details.

She remembered Judge Burchell, a former supervisor in the Town of Mamaroneck and a New York Supreme Court Justice, as a “real gentleman” who still wore and tipped his hat to her when she was mayor of Larchmont in the 1980’s. Margaret Burchell, known as Peg, was an author and wrote, among other items, a “gentle musings” column for the local newspaper. Upon her death last year, the library was notified that it will be receiving a substantial bequest, which will now become a principal component of the “Larchmont Public Library Children’s’ Room Fund.”

Plans for the renovation are still in the “very preliminary stage,” however, there have been extensive investigations of exemplary facilities conducted by a committee comprised of Library Board Trustees Joan Macfarlane, Carolyn Parlato and Maureen LeBlanc with assistance from the library’s director, Diane Courtney.

What’s on tap? Ms. Curnin listed a number of goals: to bring the Children’s Room up to date; to make it energy efficient with new windows; to add wiring for more computers and Internet opportunities; and “create an atmosphere that will be inviting to children, their parents and their caregivers.” Another goal is to provide more opportunities for very youn children. “We recognize that learning begins almost as early as consciousness,” said Ms. Curnin.

Basically, she said, the plan is to do “more of what we’re doing.”

Getting the library ready for “today and tomorrow” is an important aspect of the plan. The Children’s Room is housed in the second floor of the former St. Augustine’s School Annex that was built in 1962 and purchased by the Village of Larchmont around twenty years later. It opened as the children’s library in the early 1980's and underwent some further modification in 1992, when the entire library was expanded and renovated. “Nothing much has happened since,” said Ms. Curnin.

Now, with the Burchell bequest and the newly passed resolution from the Library Board, a lot is expected to be happening at the Children’s Room.

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