Thursday, October 1, 2026
For those interested in American history, they need only travel two blocks south of Sunrise Highway to discover one of Long Island’s oldest libraries.
The building, chartered in 1897, was a community hub for decades. On its front lawn sits a World War I memorial that commemorates dozens of local soldiers who fought in the war — all of whom came back alive.
In the century since its founding, the library survived a fire, was refurbished, changed ownership, and fell further out of use with time. Now, the grounds are used for storage by the Merrick School District and some residents are making an effort to breathe new life into the facility.
Gary Glick, commander of the Jewish War Veterans Post 652, is a fierce advocate for the preservation of veterans’ history on Long Island and beyond. The memorial at the library has been tarnished after years of exposure, and he has been working with local companies and the Merrick School District to get it cleaned.
“The building is just nothing right now, except for storage, and we’ve been trying to keep the ground,” he said. “They keep the ground clean to a point, but we go there and we change the flags every so often, and it’s a hard thing for us to do.
“We preserve history,” he continued. “That’s what we’re doing.”
Glick is looking for ways to take care of the library without putting the physical burden on fellow veterans. Working with likeminded community members introduced new options.
Joe Baker, founder and former president the South Merrick Civic Association, was born and raised in this community. Baker and Glick have been working together on securing permissions to clean, restore and preserve the monument and building.
“When I was a little boy, that was my library, and unfortunately, a lot of people my age and older have either moved out of Merrick or passed away,” Baker explained. “A lot of the old buildings that I was familiar with were knocked down… this is this is really the last important historical building that we need to save.
“The new generation needs to know what that building was and is,” he added.
Historical Society of the Merricks president Fred Jones has big plans to shape the old library’s future.
“We are trying to revive the historical society,” he said. “We’re approaching the school board who currently runs the library, and we want them to give it back to us so we could have it as a community center.”
Jones suggested that the building could be used as a meeting place for veterans, have historical artifacts on display, host school trips and events for boy scouts and girl scouts, and much more.
According to Jay Barchat, a member of the historical society, conversations with the school district’s superintendent have been productive, but these plans are in their earliest stages.
“We’d have to get a go through the process of getting it on the ballot for a vote at the next election,” he explained. “It’s a product that’s in that in planning stage, that’s not anything that’s on the calendar yet… at some point we’ll be on the agenda with the school board.”
The Merrick School District declined to comment on this story.
