Freehold Public Library
Encyclopedia
The Freehold Public Library the free public library
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...

 of Borough of Freehold, New Jersey
Freehold Borough, New Jersey
Freehold is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 12,052. It is the county seat of Monmouth County....

 located at 28 1/2 East Main Street.

Serving a population of 11,000 residents and with a collection of approximately 26,000 volumes the library has a yearly circulation of circa 28,000 items. While there have been suggestions that it be incorporated into the Monmouth County Library
Monmouth County Library
Monmouth County Library is the county library system located in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The headquarters is located in Manalapan, New Jersey.Branch locations are:...

 system, the library remains independent. The building is one of the remaining Carnegie-funded libraries in the state and is believed to be the only one with the name Carnegie Library engraved on its facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

.

Founding

The King’s Daughters, a charitable and social service organization of the Baptist Church, decided at the turn of the 20th century that the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....

 of Monmouth County
Monmouth County, New Jersey
Monmouth County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey, within the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 630,380, up from 615,301 at the 2000 census. Its county seat is Freehold Borough. The most populous municipality is Middletown Township with...

 should have a library. It was opened on Jan. 6, 1900, in the Lloyd Building at the corner of West Main and Throckmorton Street with a collection of 500 volumes, but was destroyed by fire in December 1901.

Carnegie Library

The building is one of New Jersey's thirty-six Carnegie libraries, constructed with a grant made March 27, 1903 by industrialist Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...

 and opened in 1916.

Marion Laird, chairwoman of the Library Committee of the King’s Daughters, wrote to Carnegie asking for financial support for a new library building. The philanthropist offered $10,000, though records indicated that the donation would eventually be $11,000. Two conditions were stipulated: that the town should provide a suitable site. and that it provide support to the library not less than $1,000 per year.

At the annual election of Freehold Township on March 10, 1903 residents voted to support the levy of a library tax. It was the second town in New Jersey to get a Carnegie grant for a new library, the first being that for the East Orange Public Library
East Orange Public Library
The East Orange Public Library is the free public library of East Orange, New Jersey.-Locations and circulation:As of 2011, the library had a collection of 343,918 volumes, served a population of approximately 73,000 and circulated 318,748 items annually...

 in 1900. The borough incorporated 1919.

The King’s Daughters soon raised $2,000 through donations to buy the lot. In the summer of 1903 Frederick A. Brower contracted to constuct new library, which cost of $8,874 and opened the following year,

See also

  • Belmar Public Library
    Belmar Public Library
    The Belmar Public Library is the public library of Belmar, New Jersey located at 517 10th Avenue.The library circulates about 15,000 items annually from its collection of 32,000 volumes. The Jersey Shore town in 2010 had year-round population of about 6,000...

  • List of Carnegie libraries in New Jersey
  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Monmouth County, New Jersey

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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