The Nostalgic Trip #4CLSRoadTrip

Years back, the grandfather and uncle of my then best friend lived in the Catskills mountains outside of a hamlet in Delaware County, New York.  My friend and her siblings and mother would spend summers up there, escaping New York City for the rural life. Her father would join them on weekends.

 In the early 70's, I was invited twice to visit the family for a week up in Delaware County.  I was back a handful of times to that house since (after her parents moved up there), but never to other nearby villages I had remembered from those visits when I was younger.

As the Four County Library Roadtrip drew to a close (it ends on September 2), my spouse and I decided to visit several of these villages/hamlets I visited during my stays with my friend's family and view their libraries.

One of these hamlets (it was a village when I visited, but they dissolved the village in 2002) is Andes, population approximately 1,000.  Andes is located in a setting of  hills, winding roads, and farmland and was the center of the Anti-Rent War of 1839-1845.  Some called that uprising the Second American Revolution. 

I grew up in New York State and don't remember learning about it.

Much of Andes' downtown is on the National Register of Historic Places.  I don't know if the library building is that old but the library itself celebrated its 100th birthday last year. Some renovation work was done in 2020 during its pandemic closure.

As for its setting....

This is the rear of the library.

There is a gazebo for raised beds, which are used for gardening programs.  The library, over the summer, started to install an edible landscape. 

The front of the library.

The inside.

There was a question I had to ask the librarian.  I remembered being taken to a municipal pool during my visits. It's actually one of the few things I remembered of Andes.  Did the pool still exist?  The answer was yes, and, in fact, it was only a couple of blocks away from the library.  

No, we didn't visit it, but it would have made a good stop in this nostalgic trip.

But one thing we did visit was the library's pride and joy-a mural in the bathroom.   I'll show it to you tomorrow, as it deserves its own post.

Although we had other libraries to visit, I want to return to Andes one day and visit the town further.  The place where we wanted to have lunch was closed on Wednesdays, so we picnicked on the library grounds.

Tomorrow, we'll travel back to Andes for a treat (alas, not Andes chocolate mints, which are made in Wisconsin).