A former library at 44 Main Street in Hurley, long closed to daily traffic is getting a new lease on life.

Hurley’s planning board voted unanimously on May 28 to approve a site plan and issue a Certificate of Appropriateness to transform the building into the Hurley Heritage Community Center. The project, estimated to cost $500,000, will be funded primarily through a $375,000 grant from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. The remaining $125,000 will come from town reserves, according to Town Supervisor Mike Boms.

The structure, next to the Hurley Library, will become a gathering space for residents and a place to teach visitors about the town’s colonial roots. The new building will also provide space for committees like the Climate Smart Taskforce to hold meetings, Supervisor Michael Boms said in an interview.

Once complete, it will house the Town Historian’s office and be the starting point for walking tours through Hurley’s stone house district, one of the best-preserved examples of 17th-century Dutch colonial architecture in the Hudson Valley. It will also provide space for local volunteer groups, although not the town’s Planning or Zoning Boards, and offer overflow capacity for larger library events.

Accessibility is central to the redesign. A lift will be installed to make the building fully ADA-compliant, and the existing front parking lot will be replaced with green space, while parking shifts to the rear.

Although a formal request for proposals failed to attract bids before a May 27 deadline, town officials say they are contacting contractors directly to begin the work.

Once builders are secured, Hurley’s former library will quietly begin its second act—a place not just to read history, but to live it.

Noah Eckstein is the editor-in-chief of The Overlook. Send correspondence to noah@theoverlooknews.com.