Albright Public Library, Scranton, Pennsylvania

[LIB11084] Paul C. Koeber Co. PCK Series 2617

1914 Albright memorial Library, Scranton, Pennsylvania

[LIB0420] Click on the image to order a reproduction of this postcard!

Handley Public Library, Winchester, Virginia

[LIB0935]

Judge John Handley of Scranton, Pennsylvania left $250,000 in his will to “ . . . open a Public Library for the free use of the people of the city of Winchester forever.” The Handley Trustees hired architects J. Stewart Barney and Henry Otis Chapman of New York who designed the building in Beaux-Arts style. The Handley Library opened in 1913 at a cost of $233,230.28 for the building and furnishings. An addition was added to the building in 1979 and a complete renovation, designed by Dennis Kowal Architects, was completed in 2001. [Thanks to the Handley Regional Library, www.hrl.lib.state.va.us]

1906 Public Library, Scranton, PA

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In 1889, the city of Scranton decided it was ready to start a public library. The city council stipulated that $25,000 be raised by the citizens of Scranton in order to ensure interest in having a public library.

The Citizens' Subscription Fund was started. 141 people contributed over $25,000, ranging in donations of three dollars to over a thousand.

At the same time, as good fortune would have it, a former Scranton resident was looking for a way to memorialize his parents. His name was John Joseph Albright, and he was a resident of Buffalo, NY. His parents, Joseph Jacob and Elizabeth Sellars Albright, had recently passed away.

Mr. Albright and his brother and sisters donated the land on which the Library would be built. It was the site of the old family homestead, on the corner of Vine Street and North Washington Avenue. The building itself was a gift of Mr. Albright, and he asked that it be named after his parents. [SOURCE]