Pike library moves on expansion

MILFORD, PA — The Pike County Public Library’s main branch is about to expand across East Harford Street. Let the fundraising begin.

On January 24, library board president Barbara J. Buchanan signed a real estate purchase contract for the $750,000 vacant 1.25-acre lot opposite the library.

The land will provide a home for a new main branch building, which library officials have been planning since 1999 and now hope to open by 2006.

An April closing is planned for the purchase of William Shih’s property, which will also mark the beginning of the fundraising for design, construction and furnishing the new 10,000 square-foot building.

The new structure’s opening will mark the first time since 1901 that Community House has not served as county’s central library. Formerly known as “The Homestead,” the 1872 library structure was donated to the Community House Association by James Pinchot on the condition that it serve as a library.

The library became a county library in 1928, when the commissioners so named it and dedicated a $500 annual contribution. Pinchot’s son, Clifford, who became governor of Pennsylvania, later signed the legislation that provides state library funding today.

Community House today houses some 35,000 volumes.

Movement on the expansion plans was made possible by a $1 million donation made by Milford native Dorothy E. Warner, for whom the new building will be named. Warner’s grandfather was the founder of the First National Bank of Pike County.