Canton Public Library history

The first known library in Canton, the Canton Social Library Association, was formed in April 1832.

There were 94 names signed to the roll, and the first minutes of a meeting show that it was held February 11, 1838.

On February 28, 1839, a meeting of the Independent Society was called, and they voted to sell the meeting house at auction on the 14th of March applying the proceeds for the establishment of a public library.

After the official office building was built in 1867, it also housed a library, school rooms, a post office, as well as Collins Hall which was available to the public for church services, meetings and the like.

The Canton Public Library began in 1874 when Mr.

The present Canton library dates from 1887 when the Good Knights Templar opened a reading room in an office of the Town Hall.

Several prominent members of the Good Knights Templar, including Professors Priest and Forbes of St Lawrence University, J. Henry Rushton, and Gilbert Manley sought support from the State of New York for a library charter and finally succeeded on March 19, 1896.

The library was opened for inspection and the circulation of books on Saturday, November 8, 1913 and thereafter on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 2 to 5 and 6:30 to 8:30.

On August 7, 1919, a special meeting of the Canton Memorial Association was held in Collins Hall at which it was announced that Mrs.

The board of directors of the Canton Public Library met in November, 1920, and voted to use $1,500 for the purchase of new books, and donated $1,000 to the committee in charge of decorating the interior of the building.

CPL first opened with 12,000 square feet on the 3rd floor of the Township Administration Building on October 20, 1980, and was dedicated on November 9, 1980.

Since the current building opened in 1988, many things have changed in Canton and at the library.

Comments were “that it was as pretty a library as any in the State.” It served the town for 80 years until the year 2000 when the present Library and Community Center was constructed by renovating the former elementary school on Dyer Avenue.

Renovations began in earnest on January 3, 2006.