![]() |
Manchester Public Library History |
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. |
| Posted March 6, 2007, DMR MPL Homepage |