The Morristown Library
The Morristown Library
The Morristown Library was founded in 1792, with 97 members and 96 books. By 1875 it had grown to become the Morristown Library and Lyceum, a grand Gothic Revival-style structure on South Street.
Disaster struck in 1914 when a fire destroyed the Library and Lyceum, including much of the collections. However, Mr. Grinnell Willis, a local textile merchant and philanthropist, offered to fund the building of a new library at the corner of South Street and Miller Road in honor of his late wife, Mary. The new building, designed by Edward L. Tilton, was opened in 1917 with 8,000 books on its shelves. By 1929, the library contained 43,500 volumes, and included a busy an information desk and a book mobile that made regular stops at hospitals, schools, and social organizations.
Both the Morristown Library and the Morris County Library shared a bookmobile throughout the 1920s. Depicted in the article (Jerseyman 1924Sep11:1) was a typical request by local children to add more popular books to the mobile library. In the adjoining photo, Grinnell Willis stands farthest to the right, with Katherine Tappert the head librarian (1924-1927) to the left of him. The two would eventually marry in 1927.
A report on the number of books loaned by the library since its grand opening in 1917, until construction of the new wing in 1929. Also noted are new library services and displays according to year.