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Home : Quarterly Archives : Volume 23 |
Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society |
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Source: October 1985 Volume 23 Number 4, Pages 133–136 Some Scattered Memories of the Paoli Library Note The Paoli Library is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. The library was started in 1910 by the Paoli Town Association, which had been formed three years earlier "for the purpose of maintaining a society for the improvement of the streets and public places in the town of Paoli in the townships of Tredyffrin and Willistown". To start the library, William Shippen Roney, the president of the Town Association and a prominent attorney in Philadelphia, donated his own collection of books, and then collected more from his friends and neighbors. To them were added 400 volumes contributed by the old Mercantile Library of Philadelphia. After ten years, in 1920 the Paoli Library Association was chartered as a separate organization to "maintain and support" the library and a free reading room. Sixty years later, in 1980, the library was merged with the Tredyffrin Library and officially became the "Paoli Branch of the Tredyffrin Public Library" and a part of the county library systen. Over its 75-year history, nineteen persons have served as president of the Library Board, and since 1920 there have been a dozen librarians. The present president is Judy Farrow, while Mimi Lang has been the librarian since 1981. Throughout this period the Library has been located in the old Town Hall building (originally the chapel of the Presbyterian Church) on Darby road in Paoli. As its services expanded, these quarters became more and more cramped and crowded, and at the observance of its 75th anniversary it was announced that plans for new larger quarters are well underway. For the anniversary, the Paoli Library Association also prepared a brief history of the library, "Down Memory Lane", compiled by Mrs. Irene Wheeler and edited by Mrs. Alma Funkhouser, Mrs. Helen Rubenstone, and Mrs. Laura Unger. These "sacttered memories" by Anna Smedley Bartram, for many years a member of the Library Board, were written in conjunction with the preparation of this history. rmg When Mr. William Shippen Roney, in 1910, brought to his home in Paoli a goodly number of books to encourage the forming of a library, it was not a new idea to many readers in and around Philadelphia. The old Mercantile Library in the city had done this in previous years, and many of the libraries in communities near and far from Paoli today owe their existence to the generosity of the Mercantile Library. In the minds of many people, not only in Pennsylvania but throughout the New World of America, this custom of sharing goes back to the founding fathers of Philadelphia - William Penn, James Logan, and Benjamin Franklin, to mention only a few of them. Florence Greenwood Paschall has written very interestingly of the early history of our library. Let me add a few memories of some of the changes during the years from 1924 to 1942, covering, as they do, the chairmanships of John O. Platt, Esq., and Dr. O. G. L. Lewis. Mr. Platt had consented to act as chairman after Mr. Roney's death in 1917, and served as chairman for ten years, until 1927. It was during the years from 1924 to 1927 that Mrs. Coxe (Mrs. A. B. Coxe) asked me to assume the responsibility of seeing that the librarian, Miss Greenwood, had her "pay" promptly. She, Mrs. Coxe, had taken on this task, and, as I soon found out, she had also assumed the responsibility of supplying the funds, if they were not otherwise available, to meet the bill. I have keen admiration for the subscribers and the directors who at that time frequently quietly paid bills for light, heat, and salary. To these fellow citizens we owe the survival of the library during these years! At the time of Mr. Platt's resignation in 1927 we were "sore pressed" to find his successor. Dr. O. G. L. Lewis, of South Valley Road in Paoli, was approached, and finally was willing to accept the chairmanship - if we would promise to put our entire collection of books into a well-catalogued library. We knew this meant we must have a trained librarian. As a part of his willingness to serve, he had won the consent of a person to carry out his stipulation - and a promise that all of the trained librarian's orders as to the classification and arrangement of books on the shelves would be followed! (In all these requirements, incidentally, there was also both the encouragement and physical help of his wife, Elizabeth S. Lewis.) Fortunately, a graduate in library science from Pennsylvania State College had come, with her husband, an agriculture graduate from Penn State, to a farm near the Leopard. On being contacted, she had expressed interest in this work and a willingness to undertake it, provided that we could supply the needs for the project - typists, helpers in shelf arrangement, extra stacks for the books, file cabinets for the catalogue cards, the cards for recording books taken from the library, and, finally, people willing to learn the correct way to do all this in a "scientific way"! The task was a large one, and a challenge. Funds were needed, and it was here that our subscribers and directors came to the fore. It seemed that those of us who worked on the books had only to voice our needs and they were met.
Drawing by Henry T. MacNeill Was it a new stack? From homes and the lumber yard of Edward Bracken came lumber. A carpenter offered his services. There was a member who wanted to stain all the stacks, new and old. Did we need some stacks for the larger books? That was easily done; just "Give us the height of the shelves". Then came calls from elderly friends, moving into smaller homes, or from a family leaving our vicinity. "Would you be interested in our entire library?" If so, they "would be glad for us to have it!". Did we "have any use for an extra typewriter? - we would be glad for you to borrow ours". "Is there any use in your children's department for a table and chairs? They are yours to adapt to your needs!" This gift was sorely needed for our juvenile readers. The children's department was put on the old stage of the building, which had no entrance or exit except from the floor of the library. (Nelson Jones, who took part in plays in the former "Town Hall" once said, "We entered and exited by going in or out a window and down a ladder, be the weather snow or rain, cold or hot.") Now the children could browse insight of parents or the librarian. What a relief to have that question settled! Up went the books, making more room on the floor of the library. Willing hands by day or night made the tables and chairs the correct height, and, polished, they looked like new. The paint around the windows looked "shabby", or so a painter friend said, adding that he would spare a man to do the work if we would buy the paint. It was soon bright, and the windows cleaned and shining. The Depression was creeping up on us. A very kind teacher came to be a help to us. Then the W. P. A. came into being, and we could, through this means, use extra help to speed the work. Small wonder that, despite all the difficult problems, we sometimes felt our "cup ran over"! Our librarian received a severe shock in the sudden death of her husband. In time, she left our vicinity and went to Downingtown, but for a while she was willing to get the cards ready to be typed, and when carefully checked and filed we were truly thankful for her help. Eventually another librarian, the wife of a young man in the Philadelphia Library System, heard of our need and offered to give some assistance. Later she moved to Phoenixville and we took the cards to her, to be written up, ready to be typed and filed. There were, of course, some citizens who were opposed to the changes in the library, but gradually the criticism faded and more of the residents gave freely of their time to library work. Time has erased in my mind many of these names, and it perhaps seems best to avoid all names. Perhaps some day the records of the years from 1917 to 1942 will be found, and we shall know in full all that happened in our work during this period. Circumstances necessitated the resignation of Dr. Lewis in 1942 after almost fifteen years of service, years that marked not only a change in the library itself but also a change in the attitude of the community, the county, and the state towards us. We were often visited by the State Library chairman, who had a keen interest in our growth. She said she often used the story of our accomplishments to encourage other libraries throughout the state of Pennsylvania!
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