Have you ever driven past the same building day after day and wondered what it looks like inside?
Have you ever only seen a space from the street and wondered what lies within?
Maybe the location is closed to the public, or maybe you’ve just never had a reason to go in.
Now you don’t have to.
The Sentinel’s Inside Look series aims to take readers into the curious places Cumberland County has to offer from the comfort of their living rooms.
Join us every other week for a video and photo gallery of new, or sometimes very old, local places that are just waiting to be explored.
Amelia S. Givin Library
To anyone who finds themselves a little green with envy at the library scenes in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” the Amelia S. Givin Library in Mount Holly Springs might have just what you’re looking for, rolling ladders and all.
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The library, established in 1889 on the former site of a hotel that was destroyed by a fire, is the oldest public library in Cumberland County. Today it can be found at 114 N. Baltimore Ave. in Mount Holly Springs.
Named for its founder, Amelia Steele Given, the library was unique in its time because it was a free public library when most others required subscriptions. This is reflected in the library’s full name “The Amelia S. Givin Free Library.”
Amelia S. Givin was born in 1845 into a family who owned a paper company in Mount Holly Springs, the library said. Her father died suddenly in 1879 and she was preceded in death by her four brothers. Ten years later, after the death of her mother, Givin was left with considerable wealth that she used to establish Cumberland County’s first public library and one of only a few in the state of Pennsylvania at the time, Library Director Cynthia Thompson said.
The building’s exterior resembles a castle and features a turret. It was constructed out of brownstone blocks from the Hummelstown Brownstone Co., the library said.
Inside, intricate Moorish fretwork dominates the interior woodwork in the building’s four original rooms.
A reading room contains rows of shelving that houses fiction books, accessible by functional rolling ladders. The space is dotted with tables and chairs for reading, studying or research. Other spaces in the original portion of the library include a room featuring magazines and a reference room, both off of the main lobby.
Additional space added to the library in 1989 includes nonfiction reading material and children’s books, as well as a downstairs area for children’s activities and storage.
The Amelia S. Givin Library was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 and the Cumberland County Historical Society recognized the library on its Cumberland County Register of Historic Places last year.
Maddie Seiler is a news reporter for The Sentinel and cumberlink.com covering Carlisle and Newville. You can contact her at mseiler@cumberlink.com and follow her on Twitter at: @SeilerMadalyn
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