“Reading on Broadway” — Long Branch Library

by Greg Kelly · Published February 1, 2024 · Updated March 28, 2024

It’s considered a “Carnegie Library.”

The Long Branch Free Public Library on Broadway was funded by a Carnegie Foundation grant (which financed nearly 1,700 new libraries nationwide). After more than a century of “reading on Broadway” the city’s main library remains progressive — keeping pace with changing times.

LB Free Public Library

Opened in November 1920, the Long Branch library project was the last of its kind in the nation. Edward Lippincott Tilton of New York — the architect on over 100 US libraries — did the design work. F.G. Fearon Company of New York was the builder. The final cost of the new library was about $40,000, according to the Long Branch Daily Record.

Andrew Carnegie’s life story is as amazing as it is inspiring. Born dirt-floor poor in 1835 Scotland, he became one of America’s greatest industrialists and philanthropists — donating most of his $350 million fortune (that’s $5 billion+ today) before his death in 1919. To secure the Carnegie funding, the original library association deeded all ownership rights to the city in December 1916; a seven-member Board of Trustees was appointed (today nine members serve).

In Long Branch the joy of reading and an institution dedicated to encouraging it began with the East Long Branch Reading Room and Library Association which had been formed in October 1878 (consisting of 30 local women). The very first public reading place was a single room on the second floor of old Washington Hall, opposite Steinbach’s store on Broadway that opened in November 1878. Jordan Woolley, who built the three-story building in 1866, donated the space. Jacob Rothschild acquired the property in 1888 for $8,000 and made it into Broadway Theater. Washington Hall, by then DeForest Gym, burned in March 1921.

“A bigger and better library in Long Branch is an investment in our young people’s future and in the educational development of our adult citizenry.”
—Long Branch Daily Record, 1967.

The association was incorporated in 1880 and that same year is acquired property at the corner of Broadway and Academy Street (for $2,500) where Library Hall was built (for $3,365) and dedicated in May 1880. James S. Brower was the first librarian. After some renovations to the hall, the association sold the property for $16,000. In 1916 the city deeded over land adjoining City Hall to build on. A new 5,000-book library was opened there in March 1916 replacing the old building.

In August 1962, the library dedicated a new addition costing $45,000. The expansion was necessary — circulation had leaped from 66,000 books in 1949 to 167,000 in 1964. The 1,500-sqare-foot, air-conditioned addition brought the Broadway complex to a 7.500-square-foot total. In June 1968, the library re-opened with a 12,000-sqare-foot addition costing $230,000 (about $100,000 coming from the feds). At the time, James Barbour was Board of Trustees president.

Fore more than 20 years the ubiquitous Long Branch librarian was Marjorie Layton, who served from 1948 to 1969. A Long Branch Daily Record profile in 1965 called her “a woman of knowledge” with a professional library career dating back to 1926 in Asbury Park. She is credited with opening the first “Children’s Room” (named for Eliza Topping) at the library in 1954. She was also the first president of the Monmouth Librarians Association in 1961. A Trenton State graduate, she died in December 1995.

Annual staff salaries to maintain the library reached $100,000 for the first time in the 1973 city budget. The Broadway library received in $2.2 million in upgrades in 2002 under then Library Director Ingrid Bruck.

In November 2012, city voters approved a NJ Library Construction Bond Act — Long Branch was awarded a $3.1 million state matching grant. Restoration work on the 23,500-square-foot city library includes a business/career center, local history room, new teen area and additional reading spaces. Other improvements include a new HVAC system and emergency generator. Two levels of the building will be renovated — with open floor plans and new furniture.

Current Library Director Tonya Garcia’s “dream to see the library renovated to reflect its nationally recognized services while being restored to the majesty of its Carnegie origins” is really happening. The former NJ Library Association president and its “Librarian of the Year” recipient — with a library science graduate degree from Rutgers — has led the city’s citadel of learning and knowledge since 2016.

The main library on Broadway closed in May 2023 while the work is being done. Good luck to all.

LB Free Public Library: Annual Report — HERE

Sneak Peak — New Long Branch Free Public Library lobby proposed, 2023 — MORE INFO.

“Carnegie Crowned” — Long Branch Free Public Library on Broadway, Winter 2023 — MORE INFO.

First Read — Edward R. Slocum house on Broadway in 1868, Long Branch Daily Record, 1964. The city’s public library holds the ground now. The large double house was designed by Alfred Chamberlain. Slocum then owed about 40 acres in the area reaching all the way to Chelsea Avenue. More on the Slocum family — HERE.

Book It — Long Branch Free Public Library on Broadway, 1940s.

Long Branch library, 2017. “The city of Long Branch should do whatever it can, at all times, to improve” the public library —Long Branch Daily Record, February 1963.

Long Branch Free Public Library, 1950s. “The city has always had one of the finest libraries in the county.” —Red Bank Daily Register, March 1967.

“Long Branch Pubic Library,” 2021. The name and a Board of Trustees became official in April 1917.

“Library Hall” promo, Long Branch Guide & Directory, 1883. By 1880 there was a “crying need” for a library, according to Long Branch Daily Record.

Long Branch Library, 1940s. “The Long Branch Public Library has been called the finest library in the county.” —Long Branch Daily Record, November 1964.

Long Branch Public Library, June 2022. The annual tax levy for city library maintenance cleared $2 million for the first time in 2022.

Long Branch Public Library, 2021. James Brower was the first city librarian followed by Miss A. Thompson, Mrs. Libby Chasey, Mrs. Andrew Nilsen, Mrs. Edith Woolley, Mrs. W. T. Whecker, and Miss Mamie Clarkson.