Butler Library celebrates 125th, kicks off yearlong celebration
The Butler Public Library kicked off a yearlong celebration of its 125th anniversary with an open house Friday.
Amid the cupcakes, historic displays and time capsule contents, the library's special collections librarian and genealogist Margaret Hewitt traced the library's rise from a rented room on West Jefferson Street in 1894, to its present building at 218 N. McKean St.
“On Feb. 16 and 17th in 1894, it began on West Jefferson Street as a single rented room between a grocer, a fish shop and a horse stable,” Hewitt said. “It wasn't just a library, but it was also the Women's Industrial Exchange that sold homemade clothes and homemade foods to fund the library.
“So doing a bake sale to support the library is literally an idea as old as time. That's how we got started,” she said.
“It started with 432 books,” said Lori Hinderliter, library executive director. “Today we have 103,000 cataloged items, whether printed or electronic, maps and CDs.”
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