Library celebrates century of service to Freehold

Library celebrates century
of service to Freehold
By dick metzgar
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY FARRAH MAFFAI The Freehold Public Library, East Main Street, Freehold Borough, was built 100 years ago with a grant from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

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 is still alive and bustling with activity after 100 years of service, although 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, however.

The library is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, which will culminate with a gala birthday celebration on Oct. 18.

Retaining its status as an independent library, the Freehold Public Library honors the man who funded its construction — American industrialist Andrew Carnegie.

"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. Our senior citizens and schoolchildren use this library extensively. It is my understanding that this building would cease to function as a library if we joined the county system. It would be very difficult for our children and senior citizens to travel out of town to a county library branch."

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.

The King’s Daughters refused to be discouraged by this setback.

Barbara Greenberg is the director of the Freehold Public Library, which will mark its 100th anniversary of service to the community this fall.

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.

At the annual election of Freehold Township on March 10, 1903 (the borough was not incorporated until 1919), residents voted to support the levy of a library tax.

The Appleyard Family Reading Garden behind the Freehold Public Library provides a peaceful location for an afternoon with a good book.

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.

The library now has more than 20,000 volumes of reading material, Greenberg said.

The library’s birthday celebration on Oct. 18 will be from 1-3:30 p.m. Admission will be free, but reservations will be required. For further information call the library at (732) 462-5135.

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.

"We are very proud of our Andrew Carnegie past," Greenberg said.