Glenolden Library

History of Glenolden Library:

In the pleasant decade known as the Gay Nineties, the Glenolden Library was born. In 1891, Mr. J. Duncan Brooks, a Sunday School teacher who was interested in cultural development of his class, organized a club to form a free public reading room.

A little stone building, which stood next to the lot, now vacant, on the corner of Ashland Ave. and Chester Pike, was secured and Mr. Brooks found himself and his group floundering beyond their depth. He persuaded his wife to call together a group of women to serve as an auxiliary. The name of this auxiliary was called the Women’s Auxiliary of the Reading Room Association of Glenolden. The ladies, at once, began to collect money to aid the free reading room and for a building fund.