Quest Students Complete Documentary Celebrating Country Life Press

2010 marks the centennial year for Garden City's Bookspan building. When it was built in 1910, Garden City was a much different place. A trolley line ran up Franklin Avenue. The Garden City Company governed the village. Frank Nelson Doubleday brought his famous publishing company to the village from New York City.

Though no easy task, in the end he was successful and The Country Life Press was built.

Fifth grade Quest students at Stratford School have produced a 15-minute documentary highlighting this move to Garden City 100 years ago.

Students used numerous resources to conduct their research. Local citizens loaned the students pamphlets and books. Village Historian John Ellis Kordes gave the children a tour of Bookspan's grounds and provided resources from the Garden City Public Library's Archives.

Copies of the documentary will be donated to the library so that citizens will be afforded the opportunity to learn more about their community, which is rich in history.

A copy of the documentary will also be viewable online athttp://maddenpodcasts.blogspot.com/. The film has been submitted to the New York State Archives Research Awards competition.

The library is hosting an exhibit through Aug. 24 that includes vintage photos from the Centenary of Country Life Press/Doubleday in 1910. The display consists of photos, renderings and other memorabilia dating back to the Civil War up to the present day.