Freehold Public Library, Freehold Borough, NJ
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nikcap
N 40° 15.646 W 074° 16.384
18T E 561814 N 4456953
Freehold Borough was the second town in New Jersey to get a Carnegie grant for a new library. The first was East Orange in 1900. The borough’s Carnegie Library is believed to be the only one in the state with the name Carnegie engraved on its front.
Waymark Code: WM4T40
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 09/26/2008
Views: 13
From
News Transcript Aug 13, 2003
The King’s Daughters and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie will be forever linked with the creation of Freehold Borough’s free public library on East Main Street.
The library celebrated 100 years of service in 2003 and is still alive and bustling with activity. While there have been several proposals to have the borough join the Monmouth County Library System and even have its operation moved to a new location in the borough over the years.
Library officials and library advocates have resisted these proposals and the library remains where it has for over 100 years.
"This Andrew Carnegie Library is very much a part of the borough community," said Barbara Greenberg, library director. "It is very important that it be preserved, not only as a historical site, but as a provider of an important service to the community. ... It is my understanding that this building would cease to function as a library if we joined the county system.
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 of Monmouth County needed its own library.
The borough’s first library opened on Jan. 6, 1900, in the Lloyd Building at the corner of West Main and Throckmorton streets with 500 volumes. However, the collection was destroyed by fire in December 1901.
Marion Laird, chairwoman of the Library Committee of the King’s Daughters, wrote to Andrew Carnegie asking for financial support for a new library building. The philanthropist offered $10,000 (records indicated that the donation would eventually be $11,000) on the following two conditions:
• That the town should provide a suitable site.
• That the town must provide support to the library at a cost of not less than $1,000 per year.
The King’s Daughters wasted no time raising $2,000 to buy the lot at the current location of the Carnegie Library, 261/2 E. Main St., through solicitations of the public. Frederick A. Brower was hired in the summer of 1903 to construct the new library at a cost of $8,874 and the building was opened later that year.
The borough, which owns the building, has lived up to the stipulation set forth by Carnegie and continues to support its library financially at approximately $200,000 per year.
Behind the library you will find The Appleyard Family Reading Garden.