Cohoes library closes after wall crumbles
Mayor says quickly repairing former church now a priority
The Cohoes Public Library is shut after the masonry exterior collapsed on the west side of the 126-year-old former church building and other exterior water damage led city officials to call in engineers to assess what repairs have to be made.
“Out of an abundance of caution, I decided to temporarily close the library,” Mayor Bill Keeler said Friday afternoon outside the building at 169 Mohawk St.
Keeler, flanked by Fire Chief Joseph Fahd and City Engineer Garry Nathan, stood in front of the damage where masonry stones were piled on the sidewalk and wood bracing had been installed to stabilize the damaged section,
The three city officials led reporters around the building, which was the former St. John’s Episcopal Church until the 1970s when the city moved the library into it, to point out damage to the structure including its six-story bell tower.
Keeler’s Restore Historic Cohoes initiative has targeted the Cohoes Public Library, Cohoes City Hall and the Cohoes Music Hall for repairs and renovations as the cornerstone for reinvigorating the city’s historic downtown.
“These beautiful buildings are special to the history of the city,” Keeler emphasized about the importance of quickly repairing the damage to the library.
Engineers will be at the library Tuesday to assess what repairs must be made to the building and to determine the costs, Nathan said, adding they will examine the heights of the tower down to the ground. There is water damage on the eastern and western walls of the library. Nearly at the top of the tower, Nathan expressed concerns regarding stones that appear to have shifted during the last 35 years since the city updated the building in 1986.
“We don’t want another Silliman,” said Keeler referring to the 1998 demolition of the historic Silliman Memorial Presbyterian Church across the street from City Hall after years of neglect made it unsafe. That church site is now a city park.
This is the second time in two years that the city has had to deal with falling masonry from one of its three historic buildings. In 2020, the city repaired part of the City Hall exterior after masonry fell off.
Repairing the library is now a priority, the mayor said. The city previously applied for $400,000 in grants to repair the library.
This includes $150,000 from a state library fund and $250,000 from the Lowe’s Foundation, officials said. The city council in April approved issuing $6.6 million in bonds for environmental, building and parks improvements. The bond issue includes $3 million to restore City Hall, the Cohoes Public Library and the Cohoes Music Hall/visitors Center.
The interior of the library apparently has not been damaged as masonry fell outside. “The replica mastodon is safe,” the mayor said about the lifesize model inside the library of the famous Cohoes Mastodon found in the city and on exhibit at the New York State Museum in Albany.
Canvass and Van Rensselaer streets, which flank the library, are closed to traffic while repairs are made.