J. Lewis Crozer Library
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J. Lewis Crozer Library
The J. Lewis Crozer Library is a public library in Chester, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1769 as one of the earliest libraries established in Pennsylvania. It was chartered as the Chester Library Company in 1830 and reincorporated in 1879 as the Chester Free Library. In 1925, the library was renamed in recognition of a $250,000 gift bequeathed to it by the wealthy philanthropist J. Lewis Crozer. The library occupied several buildings over the years, including the Deshong Art Museum from 1961 to 1978. The current library building was built in 1976 as a neighborhood branch and became the main library in 1978. Description The library is located at 620 Engle Street in Chester, Pennsylvania, just north of Martin Luther King Park. History The library was founded February 14, 1769, when a group of citizens established a collection of 163 books on the second story of a market house. It was one of the earliest libraries established in Pennsylvania. In 1830, the Pennsy ...
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Chester, Pennsylvania
Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the Philadelphia metropolitan area (also known as the Delaware Valley) on the western bank of the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. The population of Chester was 32,605 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Incorporated in 1682, Chester is the oldest city in Pennsylvania and was the location of William Penn's first arrival in the Province of Pennsylvania. It was the county seat for Chester County, Pennsylvania, Chester County from 1682 to 1788 and of Delaware County from 1789 to 1851. From the second half of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, the city was a major center of heavy industry, manufacturing and shipping. The city became a boomtown during World War I and World War II. The availability of employment in factories, Longshoreman, dock work, and shipbuilding attracted immigrants from Southern Europe, Southern and Eastern Europ ...
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Public Library
A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries: # they are generally supported by taxes (usually local, though any level of government can and may contribute); # they are governed by a board to serve the public interest; # they are open to all, and every community member can access the collection; # they are entirely voluntary, no one is ever forced to use the services provided; and # they provide library and information services without charge. Public libraries exist in many countries across the world and are often considered an essential part of having an educated and literate population. Public libraries are distinct from research library, research libraries, school library, school libraries, a ...
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Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, West Virginia to its southwest, Ohio and the Ohio River to its west, Lake Erie and New York (state), New York to its north, the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east, and the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario to its northwest via Lake Erie. Pennsylvania's most populous city is Philadelphia. Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 through a royal land grant to William Penn, the son of William Penn (Royal Navy officer), the state's namesake. Before that, between 1638 and 1655, a southeast portion of the state was part of New Sweden, a Swedish Empire, Swedish colony. Established as a haven for religious and political tolerance, the B ...
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Deshong Art Museum
The Deshong Art Museum, also known as the Deshong Memorial Art Gallery, was a public art museum, art gallery located in Deshong Park at Eleventh Street and Edgemont Avenue in Chester, Pennsylvania. The building displayed the art collection of wealthy businessman Alfred O. Deshong from 1916 to 1984. He donated his art collection, mansion and property to the city of Chester after his death. At current valuations, the donation would be worth over . Deshong Park was created from his donated property and the museum was built there in 1914. From 1961 to 1978, the building was used as a library but fell into disrepair and suffered theft of the art collection. In 1979, a teenage boy was convicted of stealing worth of paintings over a three-year period by taking them off the wall and sliding them out of the museum's windows. The museum trust was dissolved in 1984. The museum building and park were given to the Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Delaware County Industrial Development Autho ...
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Market House
A market house or market hall is a covered space historically used as a marketplace to exchange goods and services such as provisions or livestock, sometimes combined with spaces for public or civic functions on the upper floors and often with a jail or lockup in the cellar or basement floor. Market houses usually included an arcade to protect traders and their goods from the elements while maintaining private access to most of the building. After this style of market building developed in British market towns, it spread to colonial territories of Great Britain, including Ireland and New England in America. A market house is typically located on a market square, quay or wharf in a central accessible area for the ease of transit of goods and people. More contemporary market halls are often similar to food halls. Gallery File:Charpente de la halle de Lesmont.jpg, Carpentry of the market hall of Lesmont (Aube, France) File:Fermes-halles.png, Geographical distribution of still exis ...
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Pennsylvania General Assembly
The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly and was unicameral. Since the Constitution of 1776, the legislature has been known as the General Assembly. The General Assembly became a bicameral legislature in 1791. Membership The General Assembly has 253 members, consisting of a Senate with 50 members and a House of Representatives with 203 members, making it the second-largest state legislature in the nation, behind New Hampshire, and the largest full-time legislature. Senators are elected for a term of four years. Representatives are elected for a term of two years. The Pennsylvania general elections are held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years. A vacant seat must be filled by special election, the date of which is set by ...
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Deshong Park
Deshong Park is a park in Chester, Pennsylvania. It was established in 1913 on land donated to the city by wealthy businessman Alfred O. Deshong after his death. The donation of his property, mansion and art collection would be valued at over $24 million today. The park contained the Deshong Art Museum and the Deshong mansion. The museum building hosted the art collection and was used as a library from 1961 to 1978. However it fell into disrepair and suffered theft of the art collection. In 1984, the trust that managed the park and properties was dissolved and ownership was given to the Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Delaware County Industrial Development Authority. The art collection was moved to Widener University and the museum building was shuttered. The Deshong mansion fell into disrepair, suffered a partial collapse in 2013, and was demolished in 2014. The park has fallen into disrepair, suffered from crime and in 2018, 60% of the park was sold for commercial development. ...
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Martin Luther King Jr
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights movement from 1955 until Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., his assassination in 1968. He advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination in the United States, discrimination. A Black church leader, King participated in and led marches for the right to vote, Desegregation in the United States, desegregation, labor rights, and other civil rights. He oversaw the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As president of the SCLC, he led the unsuccessful Albany Movement in Albany, Georgia, and helped organize nonviol ...
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Zenos Frudakis
Zenos Frudakis (born July 7, 1951) is an American sculptors, sculptor whose diverse body of work includes monuments, memorials, portrait busts and statues of living and historic individuals, military subjects, sports figures and animal sculpture. Over the past four decades he has sculpted monumental works and over 100 figurative sculptures included within public and private collections throughout the United States and internationally. Frudakis currently lives and works near Philadelphia, and is best known for his sculpture ''Freedom (Frudakis), Freedom'', which shows a series of figures breaking free from a wall and is installed in downtown Philadelphia. Other notable works are at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina,Robin R. Salmon, ''Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture'' (Brookgreen Gardens, 1993), v. 2, pp. 188-91. the National Academy of Design,When an artist is voted into membership in the National Academy the Academy accepts a work of art ...
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1769 Establishments In Pennsylvania
Events January–March * February 2 – Pope Clement XIII dies, the night before preparing an order to dissolve the Jesuits.Denis De Lucca, ''Jesuits and Fortifications: The Contribution of the Jesuits to Military Architecture in the Baroque Age'' (BRILL, 2012) pp315-316 * February 17 – The British House of Commons votes not to allow MP John Wilkes to take his seat after he wins a by-election, on the grounds that he was an outlaw when standing. * March 4 – Mozart departs Italy, after the last of his three tours there. * March 16 – Louis Antoine de Bougainville returns to Saint-Malo, following a three-year circumnavigation of the world with the ships '' La Boudeuse'' and '' Étoile'', with the loss of only seven out of 330 men; among the members of the expedition is Jeanne Baré, the first woman known to have circumnavigated the globe. She returns to France some time after Bougainville and his ships. April–June * April 13 – Jame ...
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