The Gold Coast Library's First Winter on Glen Head Road

On a Friday in March, between 250 and 300 people came to the soft opening of the new Gold Coast Public Library at 146 Glen Head Road. Library Director Michael Morea said the turnout beat expectations, and the children's program that day filled beyond capacity. Gina Sipley, a Glen Head resident, told the Herald the room felt like "what I imagined Studio 54 must have been like back in the day," with standing room only and neighbors arriving on their own.

That was March 20. Now the building is heading into its first holiday season. Its November and December schedule includes a weeknight cookie swap, a Sunday afternoon flute concert, and a Friday movie that runs until 10 p.m. All of them are held on Glen Head Road, away from the commuter lot the library used to share with the train station.

Twenty-One Years Beside the Train Station

The library district is young enough that its founding is still within easy memory. The Herald's grand-opening coverage traced it this way.

1. 1997: Young Girl Scouts pushed their parents to look into getting Glen Head a library.
2. 2001: Voters established the library district with an annual budget of $800,000 and a nine-member board.
3. 2005: The first library opened at 50 Railroad Avenue. It was small and had little room for programs.
4. 2015: The library pursued part of a property in the village and eventually secured more than two acres.
5. 2020: Voters approved borrowing $10.8 million through New York State Dormitory Authority bonds to buy the land and build.
6. November 2023: Groundbreaking.
7. 2026: A soft opening on March 20, then a formal grand-opening celebration in May.

Fitting in at Railroad Avenue meant working around constraints for years. The library added a rented annex for services and events, but space and parking stayed tight. Morea told the Herald the old setup filled two buildings, one of them rented, and shared a lot with the train station. Commuters filled that lot, which left little room for library users.

At the grand opening, Girl Scouts from Troop 43 led the Pledge of Allegiance and served as the color guard, a nod to the 1997 scouts who started it all. Caroline Ashby, director of the Nassau Library System, noted that Gold Coast is the newest library district in Nassau County and now also has the county's newest library building.

A Building Planned Around Evening Use

The new site covers 2.6 acres of land that had been mostly open space with a small house. Morea told the Herald the land is wholly owned by the community, with no renting involved. The 11,000-square-foot building keeps its meeting spaces apart from the traditional library areas and gives them their own entrance. It also has expanded study areas, a teen suite, an art gallery and outdoor space. Everything sits under one roof, and the parking lot is bigger.

Morea described the goal to the Herald when the doors first opened:

"We'll be able to have more outside community groups be able to meet here, be able to up the variety of the programming we're offering and really be able to have this be a place the community can use casually."

Because the meeting rooms have their own entrance, they can host an evening event while the rest of the library runs as usual. The hours allow for it too. The library's fall newsletter lists Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sundays after Labor Day from noon to 5 p.m. The library serves Glen Head and Glenwood Landing, plus parts of nearby communities such as Brookville.

The Holiday Calendar, Room by Room

Many of the season's adult events are held in Room AB, one of the new meeting rooms. This is the stretch from publication day through mid-December, taken from the library's online calendar and its fall newsletter.

The calendar has two turkey-themed programs a week apart, a fruit centerpiece on November 16 and a 3-D craft on November 23. They are listed separately, so check the library's calendar to see which one you're registering for. The cookie swap listing and the winter concert listing both ask for advance registration.

The gallery also has something new each month. The fall newsletter lists David Wiseltier for September, Charles Cummo for October and Sal R. DiPaola for November.

The children's room has a steady weekly schedule of its own. Tots' Night Out, an evening program for ages 18 months to 5 years, meets Tuesday, November 17 at 6 p.m. A Time for Kids meets Thursday, December 10 at 10 a.m. Before each children's program, the library contacts registered families by email or phone to confirm. If a family doesn't confirm, the spot goes to the wait list.

The Garden Behind the Glass

Morea told the Herald that outdoor space was part of the plan from the start. The first outdoor space to open is the Friends Reading Garden, co-sponsored by Friends of the Gold Coast Public Library. It's open now, with seating the Friends paid for through donations. The library describes it as the first of several outdoor community spaces.

Several neighbors are represented in it. Bricks inscribed through the Friends' Buy a Brick program are being placed in the garden. Local artist Dr. Ed Cohen donated a sculpture of a child reading. The Glen Garden Club donated the planters and plantings around the new building. The library's newsletter credits those same club members with keeping the 50 Railroad Avenue building looking beautiful for more than 20 years.

The library's local ties show up in its programs too. Bottle Buys, Brookville Deli, Elite Pastries Café, Fine Wine & Spirits, Gemelli Gourmet Market North, Holiday Farms, Honey's Bistro, Paris Nails and Pezzi Pizza donated raffle prizes for this year's Summer Reading program.

Norway Hall's Next Chapter

The building the library left behind has its own history. Before it became the library's first home, 50 Railroad Avenue was known as Norway Hall.

The library's building-sale page reports that voters approved selling it by a vote of 133 to 2. The board reached an agreement to sell it for $925,000 to the owner of Little Bumble Bee Daycare, whom the library describes as a lifelong resident and small-business owner in Glen Head. That price is 63% above what the library paid in 2005, and it falls within the range of an appraisal the library commissioned in fall 2024. The library didn't use a broker, so there was no broker fee. The board says the proceeds will help keep the library's cost to taxpayers stable in future years.

Under the plan, the building would become a daycare. The buyer has said the interior may need renovation but that the historic character of Norway Hall will stay intact. The sale was contingent on the voter referendum and on the new library opening. The opening happened in March. If the plan goes through, both buildings would stay locally owned, the Railroad Avenue hall as a daycare and the community-owned library on Glen Head Road.

The Glen Garden Club spent more than 20 years tending the plantings at Railroad Avenue and provided the plantings at the new building. If you're thinking about how close you'd want to be to Glen Head Road, the Gold Coast library, or the Railroad Avenue station, Limor Karudo & Elimore Kochavi would be glad to walk those streets with you, maybe after a December concert in Room AB. Reach Out.