LI library’s wild past — including arson — lands it on historical registry

Now it’s in the books.

A Long Island library with a fascinating past, marked by women’s suffrage milestones and an infamous arson incident, is now officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places after a years-long push from devoted staff.

“It’s a beautiful building and it got the recognition we all felt it deserved,” Lynbrook Library Director Robyn Gilloon told The Post of the Hugh Tallant-designed facility, which turns 100 in 2029.

“It was definitely worth the effort we put in,” she added.

Longtime reference librarian Kathleen Curran gladly took on four years of grunt work to push the application through as she and staff learned several fascinating tidbits lost to history regarding the library.

The learning space owes its inception to a locally based women’s suffrage movement called the Friday Club, which had been hopping from location to location in 1913 to promote education.

The club ultimately managed to recruit Tallant, who erected the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Lyceum Theatre, and the New Amsterdam Theatre, to complete the building that has nods to Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and war.

The library thrived as a community center over the next few decades as Nassau County saw an influx of city dwellers — until the library was burned down at the hands of a worker-turned-arsonist in 1956.

Custodian Charles H. Sharp set a blaze that caused damages that would cost $1.1 million today to try to cover up a theft of $78 from the library’s main desk, Lynbrook Fire Department archival records show.

Decades later, the library became so popular that it required an expansion in 1992, which saved the space from relocation.

And, since speculation of making the list came in April when Lynbrook Library was named a finalist, Gilloon said it has been a delightful walk down memory lane for the community.

“The one thing that was nice was getting so many phone calls,” she said.

“So many people who either moved out of the area where they grew up, or senior citizens who just wanted to reminisce on what the building was like when they used to be in it.”