{{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = Akin Free Library | nrhp_type = nrhp | image = Akin_Free_Library_March_2007.jpg | caption = Library building in March 2007 | location = 378 Old Quaker Hill Rd., Pawling, New York 12564 <!--hamlet of Quaker Hill, town of Pawling, Dutchess County, USA--> | coordinates = {{coord|41|33|32|N|73|32|57|W|type:landmark|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = New York#USA | built = 1908 | architect = John A. Wood | architecture = Late Victorian | added = November 21, 1991 | area = {{convert|1.7|acre}} | refnum = 91001726<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref> }} __NOTOC__ The '''Akin Free Library''' on Quaker Hill is a historic eclectic late Victorian stone building in the hamlet of Quaker Hill, town of Pawling, Dutchess County, New York, USA, listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a historic place of local significance since 1991.
The Akin Free Library was a gift from the Quaker Albert J. Akin (1803–1903), founder of the Bank of Pawling and the Mizzentop Hotel on Quaker Hill.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/dutchess/dutch/Hist/akin.htm | author=James H. Smith | pages=560–61 | title=History of Dutchess County, New York | year=1882 | access-date=2021-10-19}}</ref> The building was designed by the architect John A. Wood and constructed between 1898 and 1908. It is a 2½-story, ''T''-plan, stone building on a raised basement with an engaged three-story central clock tower and rear annex. The building features an entrance portico, bracketed sheet copper cornice, and standing seam copper roof. Its design is Victorian eclectic.<ref name=nrhpdoc>{{cite report|type=none|url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75317293 |title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: New York SP Akin Free Library|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |author= Robert D. Kuhn|date= October 1991| access-date=October 28, 2025 }} ({{NationalArchivesNote}})</ref>{{rp|2, 5}}
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.<ref name="nris"/>
The library itself is located on the first floor of the building. Among others, its holdings of several thousand books contain books of local interest and by local authors, a children's section, and newspaper collections.
==Museums== The '''Historical Society Museum''' occupies the second floor of the building. Its collections include objects pertaining to the local history such as period and Quaker clothing, tools and artwork, bowling pins from the Mizzentop Hotel, and the service window from the old Quaker Hill Post Office.
The lower floor of the building houses the '''Olive Gunnison Natural History Museum''', which displays about 200 mounted birds, rocks and minerals, as well as a shrunken human head.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Portal|Hudson Valley}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070625172923/http://www.pawlinghistory.org/auto_tour/akin_free_library.htm online article by the Historical Society of Quaker Hill and Pawling] *[http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/06/30/travel/escapes/30trip.html travel article in the New York Times] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927211228/http://www.passport-mag.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14158877&BRD=2699 online travel article on Pawling] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070213112213/http://www.watermanbirdclub.org/NewsArticles/2001_08AkinLibrary.htm web page on the bird collection of the Gunnison Natural History Museum]
{{National Register of Historic Places in New York}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Category:Private libraries in the United States Category:Museums in Dutchess County, New York Category:Natural history museums in New York (state) Category:History museums in New York (state) Category:Library buildings completed in 1908 Category:Pawling, New York Category:National Register of Historic Places in Dutchess County, New York Category:1908 establishments in New York (state)