Easton Area Public Library

Easton Area Public Library

Main branch location in Easton
Established	1811
Location	Easton, Pennsylvania
Coordinates	40°41′31″N 75°12′49″W / 40.69194°N 75.21361°W / 40.69194; -75.21361Coordinates: 40°41′31″N 75°12′49″W / 40.69194°N 75.21361°W / 40.69194; -75.21361
Branches	2
Collection
Size	199,805
Access and use
Circulation	322,000 (2016)
Population served	65,393 (2016)
Members	34,104 (2016)
Other information
Budget	$2.2M (2016)
Director	Jennifer Stocker
Staff	50
Website	http://www.eastonpl.org/

The Easton Area Public Library is a public library system serving the community of Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. The present Carnegie library was predated by a community library constructed by the Easton Library Company in 1811. With a grant in 1901 for $57,000 by industrialist Andrew Carnegie a new library was constructed at 515 Church Street and completed in 1903. The library has two branches, the Easton library serving as the headquarters, and the Palmer Branch located at 1 Weller Place, Palmer Township which was constructed in 1986.

The main Easton branch contains the Marx Room, which was added in 1985 to serve as a local history room. This addition houses the largest collection of local history and genealogy in northeastern Pennsylvania with roughly 15,000 historical texts and materials about the Easton area and Northampton County. In addition, it holds the oldest known map of Easton, Pennsylvania dated to the late 1700s.

In 1811 the Easton Library Company was formed when 100 shares of stock were offered to the public. The company was founded in order to provide books to the people of Easton, however only patrons who supported the library with a yearly subscription fee were allowed access to the collection. By 1815 the company had raised enough money to construct a building on land donated by resident Samuel Sitgreaves. This location on the corner of North Second and Church street was used for the next 90 years, and during the Civil War the subscription service was partially lifted to allow high school students in the area to borrow books for free.

As the Easton Library Company restricted access to the general public, the women of Lehigh Valley founded the Easton Library Association in 1895 with the goal of establishing a free public library. Funding for the new library was financed by the school board and thus became open to all the residents in the city regardless of income. On March 30, 1896 the Library Association opened their first library and were available for three hours every weekday afternoon from 2 to 5 pm including extra evening hours from 7:30 to 9 o'clock on Thursdays and Saturdays. With the short term success of the public library, by 1901 the Easton Library Association was reorganized and eligible to apply for a library grant. The Easton Library Company at this time donated their collection to the Easton School Board to assist in the creation of the free public library.