...the future, Your legacy into our third century of service to the Oxford Community.

History

Rivaling the sessions house and Hood's Tavern for antiquity is the library, the oldest in the county and the third oldest in PA. It was established on August 3, 1784, by 28 members and an equal number of books, to "promise Knowledge and Literature in the Township of Oxford...," according to the articles of incorporation of the Oxford Library Company.

It was a subscription library kept in private homes, having limited membership. In 1868 it was opened to the public (over 15 years old) for the purchase of a share of stock and an annual fee of one dollar, and was made a free public library in 1939, when it became a beneficiary of the Community Chest.

The library occupied rented space in various buildings - among them the second floor of McCullough's Pharmacy Building, the People's Bank building, and the Burn Building - until 1947, when it received $40,000 from the estate of Edith Rollins, enabling it to buy its own building, on the southeast corner of Lincoln Road and Fourth Street. In 1955 it moved from its last rented space, the lower floor of 13 North Third, the old Masonic building.

There were two other notable benefactors. Clyde Alexander, who died in 1966, left approximately a quarter of million dollars for the erection of colonial-style building in memory of his wife, Katherine B. Bicking Alexander, who died in 1954. Theirs was a childless marriage. Mr. Alexander was born in Oxford in 1885 and , when he was grown, worked with his father in the grocery store on Market Street that had been established in 1826 by his grandfather, Thomas Alexander.

The business was prosperous and his wife received a sizable legacy from the Bicking estate. Nine churches and six other health and civic agencies in the Oxford area also benefited from his estate. The commodious building constructed with Mr. Alexander's bequest was competed in December 1970, at 48 S. Second Street. It has 39,000 items in its collection and a patronage of almost 9,500, and is an associate of the Chester County Library System.

More recently, in 1979, George W. Brown left $165,000 in trust for the library. Mr. Brown, who lived in Lancaster at the time of his death, had once owned the Delmonico Cafe and had been associated with the Imperial Hotel there, as well as having been employed in real estate and insurance.

Excerpt from "Around the Oak" Reprinted by the Friends of the Oxford Public Library,  March 1999

Location

The Oxford Public Library is located at 48 S. Second Street in Oxford, PA. South Second Street runs between Lancaster Ave (Rt. 472) and E. Locust Street and can be entered from either of these streets. Free parking is available behind the library and across the street. An elevator is available just through the front entrance off of the parking lot.

Staff Listing

Kenneth Pienkos, Director: Kpienkos@ccls.org

To reach the staff listed below by email: oxfordlibrary@ccls.org

Colleen Mahaney, Children's Services Specialist
Linda M. Teel, Circulation Desk Specialist
Rachel Cimino, Technical Services Specialist

Support Staff:

Susan Waltman

Laurie B. Slauch
Marian Knorr
Tina Nuebauer

Victoria Garcia

Samuel Jenkins

Leanne Mahaney

Jeanette Jenkins

Bradford Fraver

Elizabeth Cimino

 

Maintenance:

Charlie Harris and Phyllis Harris

 

Board of Trustees - 2008

Officers

Carol Hauser, President
    Lower Oxford Township
Frank Spor, Vice-President
    Elk Township
Courtney Messick-Jayne, Secretary, Treasurer
    Oxford Borough

Members

Richard F. Hannum,
   Oxford Borough
Ruth P. Holmes,
    Upper Oxford Township
Judge Harry Farmer,

     West Nottingham Township

Maren D. Ketcham

     Oxford Borough

Scott Luther

     East Nottingham Township

Jahan Shiekholeslami

     Lower Oxford Township

Liaison from CCL Board

Jim Norton