1840    Employees of Cheney Brothers hire a book reader.

1850    Employees petition for a library. Request Granted. Collection housed first in Cheney Brothers office then in basement of Cheney Hall. This is nucleus for South Manchester Free Public Library.

1871    Manchester Library Association formed. Members pay one dollar. South Manchester Free Public Library formed.

1880-1913 Library housed on Wells Street. Collection made available to public.

1895    A Loan Library was started "over North" by the Circle of the King's Daughters. Library housed in the Patten & Brown Building.

1898    McCormick house on North Main Street becomes home of North Manchester Library.

1913    Fire destroys the South Manchester Free Public Library quarters on Wells Street. Library moves to the Eldridge house on Main Street.

1914    North Manchester Library moves into a large room at Robertson School.

1921    A branch library opens at the West Side Recreation Building.

1923    South Manchester Free Public Library's books and equipment are given to the Ninth School District by Cheney Brothers.

1930    Cheney Brothers sever all connections with the library and donate a $50,000 trust fund for a new building.

1930-32 South Manchester Free Public Library was maintained by the Ninth School District.

1932    South Manchester Free Public Library moves into the Recreation Building in Educational Square.

1932    Whiton Memorial Library "over North" is dedicated. The new library building the North Manchester Library made possible by funds donated by Doctor and Mrs. Francis Whiton.

1935    Ninth School District dissolved. The two libraries in town were consolidated. They operated under a joint board of directors but carried on as two individual institutions.

1937    South Manchester Free Public Library moves into a new building and is renamed Mary Cheney Library. Funds for the building were made possible from Cheney Brothers and Federal Public Works Administration funds.

1953    Mary Cheney Library and Whiton Memorial Library are coordinated.

1962    Mary Cheney Library has two new wings, additional stack space and other interior improvements made.

1973    Bookmobile service in Manchester began on an experimental basis in June. The Connecticut State Library made available to the Manchester Public Library one of the three bookmobiles owned by them.

1975    The new mobile library cost $37,000 and was purchased from the Gerstenslager Company in Ohio with Whiton Memorial Trust Funds. 197? West Side Recreation Branch closed.

1988    Library begins circulating materials with the Sirsi computer system operated by the Capitol Region Library Council, Windsor.

1990    Annual circulation 302,000. Long-time Director John Jackson retires.

1993    Cheney building gets front handicapped access ramp.

1994    Whiton building receives major infrastructure improvements (new furnace, asbestos removal, new phone system, electric improvements.)

1995    Old bookmobile traded to Police Department. New bookmobile van bought. Circulation passes 550,000 annually.