HUNTINGTON LIBRARY CENTENNIAL BEGINS

Not A Discouraging Word

As Library Park Plan Aired

Sixty curious Huntington Memorial patrons and enthusiasts packed the library’s first-floor space this evening to hear Tom Breiten of Templeton Landscape Architects, Fly Creek, discuss a preliminary redevelopment of the adjacent Huntington Park, both gifts to the people of Oneonta from tycoon Henry Huntington.  The Park Terrace Overlook, top photo, is one of a dozen features proposed for the five-acre space, including a tented pavilion/entertainment venue, an arboretum, a children’s garden (where children might play – or actually garden), a picnic area, new plantings and a “formalized” sledding slope. The benches and open spaces are also in the proposal, intended to minimize “persons of a loitering nature,” as Breiten described them, who might keep the general public away.  The audience listened attentively, but asked no questions when the presentation was over.  The next steps include formalizing the proposal and initiating fundraising.  Adult Services Library Sarah Livingston set the stage by a presentation on Oneonta’s Huntington family, which included Collis Huntington, who went out to San Francisco and became one of the “Big Four” who built the Central Pacific Railroad, linking the nation when it rails met the Union Pacific’s at Promontory Point, Utah, in 1869.  Inset at left, Library Director Tina Winstead and Breiten prepare to begin the presentation.  (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)