Area libraries are great places to spend the day

BY DAN AUBreY

Libraries are safe places that connect to the world of ideas and human memory and are always on the front lines of combatting censorship.

Yet they are often the physical representations of past values and designs — if one just takes the time to check them out.

So, let’s take a quick tour of some of the region’s vintage libraries.

First stop, the Trenton Free Pub- lic Library on Academy Street in Trenton. It’s the oldest organized library in New Jersey and the embodiment of a particular American movement.

Founded in 1750 as the subscription-styled Trenton Library Company, it allegedly started with 50 books purchased by Benjamin Franklin.

Yet the person who turned that first page in Trenton’s history was Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, who served as the town’s first chief Bur- gess and contributed 500 pounds. The collection was housed in rented spaces or subscribers’ homes until the British arrived in 1776 and destroyed the building that housed the collection.

The library was back and running by 1781 and by 1797 had 240 items in its collection. By 1804 the library collection was at 700 volumes and still growing without a permanent home.

That need was addressed in 1900,

See LIBRARIES, Page 9