What's the Story of the Melinda Cox Free Library?

Since I moved to Doylestown in 1990, I have been a regular user of the Bucks County Free Library on South Pine Street. I understand there used to be the Melinda Cox Free Library, but I don't know anything about it. What's the story of this library? - W.H., Doylestown

On May 4, 1917, the Doylestown Daily Intelligencer reported on the previous day's opening of the borough's first free library, where patrons did not have to pay annual membership dues.

"Thursday afternoon the Melinda Cox Free Library opened and the eagerness shown to take advantage of this opportunity offered through the generous bequest of Charles C. Cox thoroughly justified the belief that the residents of the town were keenly interested.

"During the afternoon and evening one hundred and eighteen persons registered. Fifty-four of these were boys and girls, many of whom openly expressed their appreciation of the opportunity given them to get books of every kind for their personal pleasure and mental improvement.

"Miss Lucie R. Price, the Librarian, and those who assisted her, were surprised to find that a great many of the youngsters were particularly interested in books on history, biography and the like. At one time thirty-six persons were in the library.

"For the present the library will be conducted in Mr. Cox's residence, and the library has been conveniently catalogued and housed there. It will be open Thursday and Saturday afternoons and evenings."

The library was established through a bequest of Charles Cox, a Doylestown resident who died in 1914. Cox left his entire estate valued at $40,000, a substantial sum at the time, to create a community library named after his mother, Melinda Cox. The library was located in the former Cox home on East State Street.

The members of the library's first board of trustees were county Judge William C. Ryan, Mrs. T.O. Atkinson, Miss Mary L. Dubois, the Rev. Charles W. Haines and the Rev. William Steckel.

Doylestown's two previous libraries had been open only to paying members.

The first was the Society Library, formed in 1799 when Doylestown was a village with only 125 residents. It was located on the northeast corner of East Court and Broad streets. Members paid $1 a year to use the collection of about 700 books, according to a 1967 Intelligencer article marking the 50th anniversary of the Melinda Cox Free Library.

Ten years after the Society Library closed in 1846, residents formed the Doylestown Library Company, which originally had 72 members and charged $2 a year.

Some time after Lenape Hall was built in 1874, the library moved there. By the spring of 1917, it disbanded and its collection of 4,000 books was given to the newly formed Cox library. Miss Price and other women catalogued the books, which were boxed and carried to their new location before the library opened.

One of the first residents to sign up for a library card was 10-year-old James A. Michener.

"He used to sit in a corner and page through stacks of National Geographic, depending on the magazine's editors to show him the exotic countries of the world. China became his first love; the Pacific his second. Supposedly he read everything the librarians could find about Asia," John P. Hayes wrote in his 1984 biography of Michener.

Michener, who grew up to become a world-renowned author, would claim he read every book in the library by the time he graduated from Doylestown High School in 1925, according to Hayes.

The Melinda Cox Free Library remained on East State Street until 1933, when the building was sold to the Bell Telephone Co. for its Doylestown office. The library board purchased the former Bucks County Trust Co. building, an 1886 one-story brick bank across from the Doylestown Public School at East Court and Broad streets.

In 1936, the library gained more than 400 new borrowers and added 645 books to its collection, according to a January 1937 Intelligencer article.

Miss Price, still the librarian after nearly 20 years, told the newpaper that one of the most popular books was a newly published novel called "Gone With the Wind."

"With a waiting list of between 10 and 20 readers, two copies of the Margaret Mitchell novel are never in but a few minutes before they are loaned. The library purchased one copy of the 1,027-page novel written by the young Georgia newspaperwoman and a friend donated the second copy," the article stated.

The Friends of the Library, formed in 1944, raised money to buy books and materials, equipped a reading room and provided volunteer helpers. The library also benefited from other organizations, such as the Village Improvement Association, as well as funds bequeathed in wills.

Martha Edgar, a graduate of Doylestown High School and the University of Michigan, became co-librarian in 1946. After Miss Price left in 1953, "Miss Martha," as she was called, became the librarian. She was assisted by her sister, "Miss Alice." Doylestown Borough paid their salaries.

The Edgar sisters remained at the Cox library until they retired at the end of 1975.

Meanwhile, the Bucks County Free Library was created in 1956 by the county commissioners. The Doylestown, or Center County, branch opened on the first floor of a county office building at North Main Street and Shewell Avenue.

In 1963, the Cox library used a bequest from Julia W. Littleton to remodel the library and create a children's room named after her. Since the nearby county library lacked a children's room of its own, an agreement was reached under which the county system provided a children's librarian and staff for the Julia W. Littleton Children's Room, and paid for books and materials.

After the Edgar sisters retired, the county library also managed the adult section of the Cox library, which had about 30,000 books in its collection.

Faced with dwindling revenue sources and increasing operating expenses, the Melinda Cox Free Library merged with the Bucks County Free Library in 1981.

Now called the Melinda Cox Branch, it continued in operation until the fall of 1988, when the opened on South Pine Street. The Cox collection was transferred there.

In 1992, Bucks County tried to sell the former library building for $500,000, but was unsuccessful, partly because of the lack of off-street parking. Instead, the county spent $65,000 to transform the structure into , which moved there from the courthouse.

The faded words "Bucks County Trust Company" remain over the former Broad Street entrance, now a window.

While the Melinda Cox Free Library is gone, it is not entirely forgotten. The adult section of the Doylestown library is called the "Melinda Cox Adult Area" and the children's section is named the "Julia W. Littleton Children's Room."