Book Swap presented in conjunction with the Massillon Recreation Center on March 13 and March 14.
It’s time for spring cleaning! Bring your gently used books, media and vinyl records inside the Second Street entrance of the Massillon Public Library on Monday, March 13, from 10:00am to 7:45pm and Tuesday, March 14, from 10:00am to 5:00pm and exchange them for vouchers good for one point per item.
Then on Tuesday, March 14, starting at 5:00pm, those with vouchers may use those points to redeem free items from the hundreds that have been collected. Members of the public without vouchers can pick out items from 6:00pm to 7:00pm.
All leftover items will be donated to the Friends of the Library’s Book Sale.
For more information, contact the library at 330-832-9831.
In 1897, local public servant and storekeeper George Harsh willed $10,000 for “public library purposes.” The funds purchased nearly 10,000 volumes for Massillon’s first public library. Also in 1897, J.W. McClymonds announced his gift of an endowment of $20,000 for a library. The Russell sisters, Flora and Annie, who married the McClymonds brothers, donated the Nahum S. Russell home, located on Prospect Street (now Fourth Street NE), in memory of their parents. The McClymonds Public Library opened on January 1, 1899, and was funded by private subscriptions and an annual disbursement of city funds. In 1922, the McClymonds Public Library became the Massillon City School District Library and was now funded by tax revenue.
In 1930, Annie Steese Baldwin willed her home “as the site for a new public library.” Built around 1835, the brick home overlooking downtown Massillon from Hill Street (now Second Street NE) was first the residence of the city’s founder, James Duncan.
The current Massillon Public Library (Main Location), located at the corner of Lincoln Way East and Second Street NE, opened in 1937. Designed by Albrecht & Wilhelm and funded in part by a Works Progress Administration grant, the Duncan/Baldwin home was connected by a Jeffersonian portico and rotunda to a west wing Reading Room and Children’s Room. The Massillon Museum was also housed at this location until 1996 when it moved to its present location at 121 Lincoln Way East.
