Visit our website:
- Local History Center Hours: Monday and Tuesday, 9am-5pm; Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.m-5pm
- Digitized Collections: Port Washington Memories
Main Street Online 
From its beginnings as a cooperative book club in 1892, through its first school district appropriation of $1000 in 1892, and up to the present time, the Port Washington Public Library has always preserved and organized historic records of local organizations, individuals and institutions.
The Library's Local History Center today houses the Oral History Office, Special Collections Archives, and Folk Arts Projects. Separated from the general collection because of its rare, fragile and valuable materials, the Center’s goal is to collect, preserve and manage historic and folkloric materials that are special or unique, with a strong emphasis on items of local interest.
There are currently 68 Special Collections (housed in 300 archival boxes) that have been donated, purchased or bequeathed to the Library. From the earliest Minutes of the Port Washington Woman’s Club to the recent efforts of The Residents for a More Beautiful Port Washington, our collections contain a wealth of information on the area’s history and culture. We preserve and make accessible materials arriving in a variety of formats: correspondence, administrative documents, accession books, ledgers, artifacts, postcards, photographs, manuscripts, audio and video tapes, maps, printed books, pamphlets, and scrapbooks.
Contributers to the Local History Center include cultural organizations (the Cosmos Club and the Play Troupe); civic groups (the Village Welfare Society, General Council of Homeowners, League of Women Voters of Port Washington/Manhasset, Beacon Hill Residents Association); official agencies (the schools, post office, police and fire departments); families and individuals (the Hewletts, Dodges, Zwerleins, Reids and Monforts, among many others), and local businesses (the Mason Photography Studio and Larsen Sailmakers, for example).
Our oral historian and consulting archivists are available during Local History Center hours. They specialize in the acquisition, preservation, identification, and cataloging of historic documents. The Center has received funding from government organizations, private foundations, and local businesses. Whether for reference and research, use in publications, presentations or exhibits, the public is invited to acquaint themselves with these fascinating collections.
What Library Patrons Have to Say About the Local History Center:
"The Local History Center provides a communal closet in which the artifacts of Port Washington’s ‘family tree’ can be stored for future generations to look back on and learn from.”
"The Port Washington Library’s award-winning Local History Center is truly a ‘gem within a gem’”.
"Thank you for giving me the chance to walk down memory lane again (or should I say Lower Main Street?)”
"After consulting the pictures and artifacts in the library’s archives we are close to proving that our family goes back to the 1600s on Long Island. It means a lot to find this!”
Oral History Publications available for purchase
- For information about using these collections, please call (516) 883-4400, Ext. 167 or email us
- Return to Local History Page