Library History

Talk about creating a public library in the village of Ilion dates back to 1860, but nothing came of it until the Morgan Street School opened its library to the public in 1884. That shared library space was located on First St. in a rented room of the Grimes/Pelton Block until 1891, when it was destroyed in a fire. Shortly before the fire, the Ilion Alumni Association saw the need for establishing a separate independent public library for the village, and appointed a library committee. Following the fire, Clarence W. Seamans offered to buy land, build and donate a new library building to the village, becoming its benefactor. As part of the deal, the Ilion Alumni Association raised funds by hosting block parties to stock the library with books, and the village agreed to provide perpetual care to the building. Construction began in 1891, and the The Ilion Free Public Library we know today officially opened to the public on October 27, 1893. At the grand opening, Mr. Seamans officially deeded the library to the Alumni Association, who transferred ownership to the village.

The library’s benefactor, Clarence Seamans was a graduate of the Morgan St. School and started his career at E. Remington & Sons as a clerk, working alongside his father who was another Remington employee. At age 21 Mr. Seamans left Ilion, attempting to seek his fortune in Utah following a silver rush out west. A few years later, he resettled in Brooklyn, NY finding work in NYC at Fairbanks & Company as their star typewriter salesman. At that time, Fairbanks and Company were the only sellers for Remington’s Sholes & Glidden typewriters. In 1881, Clarence Seamans partnered with two other Remington employees to create a separate firm called Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict that bought out the typewriter business from E. Remington & Sons. Their new firm eventually evolved into the Remington Standard Typewriter Company in 1892, and Mr. Seaman’s fortune in the typewriter industry enabled him to help his hometown of Ilion, NY establish its own independent public library after the 1891 Grimes/Pelton block fire.

Original interior of the library; 1893

Library Interior; showing the original Reading Room from another angle

Library Interior; showing the original Reading Room area and original stairs to the History Room.

This space later became staff offices and a break room.

In honor of his contributions, the Ilion Free Public Library's History Room was named after Clarence W. Seamans, and a photo of him hangs in the room. Alongside it is a sign for the library’s original Juvenile department, which was dedicated in his wife Ida’s honor, commemorating her donation of many children’s books to the library’s original collection. When the library opened in 1893, the C. W. Seamans History Room functioned as a museum department featuring both local and general history, with Carrie L. Richardson as its first curator. Since then, the room has been renovated and the collection consolidated to better highlight Ilion’s local history.

The Library’s History Room was named in honor of its benefactor, Clarence W. Seamans.

Carrie Richardson was the library’s first historian.

The original Juvenile Department was also dedicated to Mrs. Seamans in honor of her many book donations to the library’s original youth collection.

As Clarence W. Seamans was planning the construction of the Ilion Free Public Library, he looked for an architect to design the building. He found Brooklyn native George P. Chappell, a respected city architect of several Victorian era buildings in Crown Heights North, Bedford Stuyvesant, Park Slope, and other neighborhoods. As an architect, Mr. Chappell’s work is commonly known for his use of fretted woodwork, stained glass, dark brickwork, and decorative moldings and facades. He was known for designing buildings in the Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne styles, incorporating his own personal design flair, during the peak of his career in the 1880s and 1890s. He liked to use many different materials in his designs, rather than use the same materials and have all of his designs look similar. Ilion native A. N. Russell was also recruited during construction, and much of the library’s interior woodwork was completed by the local carpenter.

In the 1950s, a study was conducted across Madison, Herkimer, and Oneida counties and survey the needs of libraries, and Children's Librarian Phyllis Anderson met with library representatives and state officials to discuss the establishment of a multi-library system that would link together each isolated library, pooling library collections, and creating a regional distribution system. On May 10, 1960, the Mid York Library System was officially established with funding from state, federal, and local governments, enabling patrons to check out items from any library in the system without having to travel to each individual library. The Ilion Free Public Library became one of the system’s first 18 charter libraries.

In 1971, the Ilion Free Public Library underwent a massive construction project. Its collection was partially packed up and relocated to the basement of Ilion’s Municipal building while the end of the original oval-shaped building was renovated, and a new wing was constructed, adding over 8,000 sq. ft to the building. During the renovations to the original part of the building, a partition wall was added to create the Remington Room, a new main entrance on Second St. was added, new stairs to the History Room were installed, and part of the original children’s area and reading rooms were converted to staff areas. In 2018, the library celebrated its 125th anniversary.