Friends of the Library Presents Awards to Distinguished Pair

The Friends of the Huntington Public Library has presented Huntington High School Class of 2026 members Walter Kusterbeck and Jesley Martinez Canales with $1000 scholarships. Library Director Joanne Adam presented the scholarships at the annual senior awards ceremony in the auditorium.

Mr. Kusterbeck will be wrestling at Southeastern University in Florida while Ms. Martinez Canales is headed to the University at Albany where she will be a thrower on the track and field team. Both students were on hand for the presentation before a crowd of about 300.

Mr. Kusterbeck earned athletic letters with Huntington’s football, wrestling and lacrosse teams. An Advanced Placement Scholar, Ms. Martintez Canales was inducted into six separate academic honor societies while excelling on the indoor and outdoor track and field teams. She won many invitational and post-season awards along the way.

Mr. Kusterbeck and Ms. Martinez Canales are not strangers to those at the Huntington Public Library so the twin $1,000 scholarships were entirely fitting and proper.

The Huntington Public Library is one of the oldest public libraries in Suffolk County with roots dating back to 1759. Thirty-nine people joined together to form the first circulating library in Huntington with Reverend Ebenezer Prime as the first “library-keeper.” The library consisted of 115 volumes which were housed in a “box of shelves.” A book could be borrowed for two months but a fine of "one copper per diem" per book was charged.

The library was destroyed during the British occupation of Huntington during the Revolutionary War and it emerged again in 1801 as a circulating library. It was known as the Huntington Lyceum between 1827 and 1843. Again, it was reorganized as the Huntington Library Association until 1858. In 1869, the Huntington Lyceum emerged once more; featuring debates and lectures and developed into the Young Men's Literary Association and continued until 1871.

Mary Talmage was considered to be the “mother of the library” because of her dedication to library services. The first Board meeting was held at her home on Fairview Street in 1875. It was in 1875 that the Huntington Library Association was formed and it became incorporated in 1883.

Through fundraising efforts, the construction of the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building was completed in 1892, commemorating our Civil War soldiers. It became the site for the new library. In July 1958, the Library was moved to its present location at 338 Main Street, the former NY Telephone Company building which was built in 1916.