The East Orange Public Library is the free

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 servic ...

East Orange East Orange is a City (New Jersey), city in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 69,612, an increase of 5,342 (+8.3%) from the 2010 United States ...

Essex County, New Jersey Essex County is located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey, and is one of the centrally located counties in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the county was the state's second-most populous county,< ...

Locations and circulation

As of 2011, the library had a collection of 343,918 volumes, served a population of approximately 73,000 and circulated 318,748 items annually. from four locations.East Orange Public Library
/ref> *Main Library - 21 South Arlington Avenue *Ampere Branch - Ampere Plaza *Elmwood Branch - 317 South Clinton Street *Franklin Branch - 192 Dodd Street

Carnegie libraries

Of the library's four locations, two were originally among the thirty-six Carnegie-funded libraries in New Jersey. East Orange's original library buildings, except the Ampere Branch, were constructed in part with funds from the $116,000 in grants from the

Carnegie Corporation The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Since its founding, the Carnegie Corporation has endowed or othe ...

. The former Main Branch, now a courthouse, was also a Carnegie library.

East Orange Municipal Court Building

The first of libraries built with Carnegie funding was the former Main Library. Alexander King, resident of the city and child-hood friend of

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

, orchestrated the first grant to be offered in New Jersey made January 18, 1900. Originally it was of source of controversy. While Carnegie offered $50,000 he also stipulated $5,000 be committed by the municipality for its upkeep, and some residents felt they would prefer to manage the city's library without Carnegie's interference and could easily make use of the recently opened library in Orange. Eventually the city purchased a lot a Main Street and South Munn Avenue where the building was constructed and opened on January 3, 1903. This original section was the work Ackerman and Ross, who also designed the library that is now houses the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. In 1914, the Carnegie Library Fund granted another $40,000 to an expansion of much needed wings, designed by Hobart A. Walker and opened the following year. Circa 1974, the building was altered and converted to the East Orange Municipal Court and later renovated again in 2009.

Franklin Branch Library

After receiving a grant of $13,000, the Franklin Branch was built, opening on August 1, 1909, at its location on Dodd Street near

Watsessing Park Watsessing Park is a park in Essex County, New Jersey, in the city of East Orange and the Watsessing section of Bloomfield Township. The park covers 69 acres (279,000 m2), just west of the Garden State Parkway, and contains the confluence of the ...

. It was expanded in 1939.

Elmwood Branch Library

The Elmwood Branch was made possible through a $13,000 grant from the Carnegie Library Fund and opened on January 12, 1912.

Ampere Branch

The Ampere Branch opened as a deposit station in 1915. After changing locations it became a branch library in 1923, and on March 17, 1931, moved to its current location across from the former Ampere Station. The building was originally built around 1914 as horse-drawn fire engine station; a second floor was added in the 1950s, and underwent renovation in 2010.

References

External links

East Orange Public Library

Floor plan of Main Library 1903

{{authority control East Orange, New Jersey Public libraries in New Jersey Library buildings completed in 1903 Library buildings completed in 1915 Carnegie libraries in New Jersey Education in Essex County, New Jersey Buildings and structures in Essex County, New Jersey