The New Woodstock (N.Y.) Free Library is offering a 1,227-square-foot house free to anyone who will move it. The library acquired the 1½-story wooden house with the purchase of a quarter-acre neighboring lot earlier this year for $9,000.
Director Norm Parry said in the October 22 Syracuse Post-Standard the library didn’t have a use for the house. “To renovate it for library purposes would be too expensive,” he said.
The house, built in 1875, was assessed at $30,000, but the previous owner said it needs some major repairs, including a new roof and furnace. A local company estimated moving the house two miles would cost at least $20,000.
Parry told American Libraries the property had many potential uses, such as a farmers’ market or outdoor bandstand, but the library currently had no specific plan beyond landscaping the property so it could be used for outdoor children’s activities, something that wouldn’t happen until at least next spring. Tearing the house down would cost about $10,000, Parry said, so “we’re hoping someone will take it for their growing family . . . and get some use out of it.”
Posted October 29, 2001.