Among DCHS Collections are the 1938 reminiscences of Mary Elvina King Weber, who was 87 years old at the time she offered these thoughts. She recalls, “The building of the Starr Institute, by Mrs. Starr Miller, was the great event of my childhood, and the opportunity of securing books to read, as many as I liked, was bliss. Well do I remember the first book, which I love to this day, St Elmo, by Augusta Evans. That book has been in my library ever since I’ve had one of my own.”
Weber’s statement came more than a quarter century after testimony on the 10th Anniversary of its opening was equally effusive, “Accessible to all your citizens [the Starr Institute is] a perpetual banquet, to which all are invited, to refresh themselves with the ripe fruits of learning and culture.”
The building that houses Upstate Films in Rhinebeck is an important and historic landmark for many reasons. Among them, the Starr Institute opened with its new building in 1862, a time when America’s deadliest war, the Civil War, had no end in sight. As the United States headed for its centennial in 1876, the country was torn apart by the issue of slavery.
In spite of the dark clouds, Rhinebeck’s local leaders and residents remained resolute in their determination to build a local society of learning and culture. Rhinebeck’s Mary Miller and William Kelly were the donor and leader, respectively, of what became the Starr Institute. The Institute came to hold a library with a reading room, recreation rooms, a dining room, and public spaces including the theater this is today Upstate Films.
Rhinebeck’s widowed Mary Miller gave land and funding to start the Institute in the name of her late husband, the US Congressman, William Starr. Born in Rhinebeck, her maternal grandfather was General Philip Schuyler of Albany. She grew up at the Schuyler estate, The Grove. Rhinebeck’s William Kelly lived on the river estate known as Ellerslie. He became the first President of the Board of the Institute and held that role until his death in 1871. He was, at the same time, and in the same spirit of community improvement, Chairman of the Board of the newly formed Vassar Female College, known today as Vassar College which was opening at the same time.