Ice cream social kicks off year of events for library

McKinley Memorial Library was started as a ‘subscription library.’

By TIM YOVICH

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

NILES — Although the 100th anniversary of the McKinley Memorial Library is a year off, the staff is kicking off a series of yearlong events leading up to September 2008.

“It’s not too early to plan. We’re going to work ourselves up to the anniversary,” said Patrick E. Finan, library director.

The first is an old-fashioned ice cream social from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday at the McKinley Memorial courtyard in the downtown.

One of the aspects of the library that Finan admires is that it hasn’t changed locations in nearly 90 years.

Also, because the library is part of the McKinley Memorial, the history associated with Niles native William McKinley, the 25th U.S. president, lives on.

The way it was

Like other libraries of its time, the McKinley Memorial Library was what was known as a “subscription library,” Finan explained.

Wealthier members of the community wanted a place where they could get books without paying for them, and at the same time improve the education of immigrants and farmers moving to the cities by selling memberships, he said.

Pupils who lived in the Niles school district didn’t need a membership to use the facility.

Of course, Finan pointed out, industrialist Andrew Carnegie provided $41 million to build more than 1,700 public libraries in this country from 1890 to 1917.

Finan finds it interesting that while Carnegie believed in education, his employees still worked 14-hour days.

Niles was not one of the libraries funded by Carnegie, but those in Youngstown, Warren, Bristol and Kinsman were started with his money, Finan said.

Nearly 100 city and former Niles residents met in April 1908 to form the Niles Library Association.

The minutes of the April 8, 1908, meeting states: “The objective of this association shall be to raise the intellectual and moral life of the community through a public library and reading room.”

Site of first one

Besides subscription, the association sought funds from the school board and city government. Ward A. Thomas donated a rent-free room in the Thomas Building on Mill Street — now East State Street — to house the facility. It opened in September 1908.

The library had 2,882 books. It now has more than 80,000 items, 70,000 of which are books, Finan said.

While the library was being established, Finan explained, community leader Joseph A. Butler began to raise money to construct the McKinley Memorial. Butler envisioned a memorial to President McKinley, who served from 1897 to 1901.

McKinley was shot by an anarchist while at the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition in September 1901. He died eight days later.

Henry Clay Frick, a one-time business associate of Carnegie’s, donated $50,000 to make the library part of the memorial.

The library moved into the McKinley Memorial in November 1917 when the memorial was dedicated.

The named was changed to the McKinley Memorial Library in April 1918 because of the library’s association with the memorial, Finan explained.

He pointed out that the physical size of the library, or 31,286 square feet, can’t be enlarged because of the buildings around it.

“You learn about space management,” Finan said.

The McKinley Birthplace Home and Research Center was built in 2003 near the library and memorial on South Main Street. It was built on the site of President McKinley’s birthplace.

yovich@vindy.com