For quite a number of years it had been a dream of Miss Inez Moon to establish a library in the Village of Central Square. In 1933 she found that the upright part of the Mary E. Munsell Home (owned by her daughter Josephine Rogers) could be rented for $8 a month. There was no plumbing and no heat. It was taken and a meeting was called for October 30, 1933 at the Fire House to elect trustees. Inez Moon was elected President, Mrs. Clarence C. Gleason as Vice President, Leonard Lastine as Treasurer, and Paul J. Fuller as Secretary. Other Trustees included George H. Devitt, Mrs. Fred Ure, and Mrs. Lottie J. Conterman. Miss Moon was appointed Librarian and served until her death on September 8, 1943.
The Library opened December 13, 1933. The money to pay expenses, books and furnishings were all donated from within the community. The first library card was issued to Ray Brown. Arthur Watson checked out the first book and Betty Coville Yates was the first person to use the reference resources.
In 1934 the Village of Central Square promised to give the library $50 a year, everything else was raised by volunteers or donated to keep the dream of a library alive and growing.
The provisional Charter was received on April 14, 1933 and the absolute charter on April 22, 1949. In the Spring of 1940 the Library Association was organized by Mrs. Ray Sheldon. On November 22, 1940 the library purchased the library building (house, lot and barn) for $875.00.
Following the death of Miss Moon in 1943, another prominent woman in the history of the library entered the scene, Mrs. Ada Powell Smith. She became chairperson of the membership drive which helped to increase the building fund also. Thanks to her much of the money was raised to build the current brick building that the library is housed in today.
On April 17, 1955 there was an Open House held to celebrate the opening of the current library we all know today. Abigail Snow served as librarian from 1944 until Alice Wade became librarian in 1969. When more space was needed, an addition was built in 1980 through a large donation from the Snow Foundation, local fundraising and matching funds through the North Country Library System. It was Board of Trustee member Hugh White's vision to create a community room and he spent many hours designing it and doing much of the manual labor himself. Upon its completion, the Library Board voted to name the room in his honor.
Upon Mrs. Wade’s retirement in 1985, Sheilah Kirker served as librarian until 1994. Sue Knowles was librarian from 1994 until 1997 when Mary Last became librarian. Upon Mrs. Last’s retirement in 2010, Terri DiGregorio became librarian.
The library is supported through funds from the Towns of Hastings and West Monroe, the Village of Central Square, the CentralSquareSchool District, the North Country Library System, OswegoCounty, fundraisers, gifts and donations.
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