HISTORY

The Wharton library dates back to May 1891 when the Luxemburg Library Association was organized by the Ross & Baker Silk Mfg. Co. and its employees. The company furnished a room, and 200 members agreed to contribute 10 cents a month to purchase books for their library. Soon 700 books were in the collection.

In 1896 the company needed the room that was holding the library books, so for the next three years the books were held in trust by various members at their homes. In 1899, Wharton Borough incorporated the library, making it public.

In 1905, the library moved to the second-floor room of Borough Hall, located on West Central Avenue, and the following year the Board of Trustees of the public library was created.

In November 1976, the president of the Wharton School Board presented the mayor with the deed to the Potter School property, site of the Wharton Public Library. The following year the Library's Board of Trustees received a federal public works grant of $467,000. Since April 1978, when the library building was dedicated, the library has been an integral part of the community.

Our library has a main level and a basement meeting-room area, as well as a mezzanine for display of local art works.

The Wharton Historical Society, which is housed at the library, has a wealth of information for patrons to review.

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Wharton
by Charlotte Kelly and Alan Rowe Kelly

Wharton traces the vivid history of New Jersey's hub industry during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Known as Port Oram until 1901, the town was the site of the richest mineral deposits in the state and of the famed Picatinny Arsenal, still active today. The Morris Canal and northern New Jersey railways were built specifically to accommodate the area's mining and iron-manufacturing industries. Wharton attracted immigrant workers who settled and stayed in the community alongside the original families, many of whose descendants still reside here.

Charlotte Kelly is the President of the Historical Society. She and Alan Rowe Kelly, a filmmaker, have compiled nearly two hundred images from the historical society and private collections for Wharton, a tribute to their favorite town.

Stop in the library to take a look at this reference book.