Avon-By-The-Sea History

On the corner of Fifth and Garfield Avenues stands a quiet library, a small building with a remarkable past.

The story begins around 1908, when summer residents Frances Wynans and Valeria Penrose, began collecting books from friends. The town’s first informal library opened in the social hall of the Baptist Church and over the next few years, the library moved — from a room above the old Homestead and eventually into the local grammar school.

Around 1914, friends of Miss Penrose purchased the lot at Fifth and Garfield. She and Miss Winans traveled to New York to apply for a grant from the Carnegie Foundation — and they got it. The grant was among the last ever awarded and it helped fund what would be the smallest town library ever funded by the organization.

In 1916, Mayor John Thomson laid the cornerstone. And more than a century later, the library still stands — built not just with bricks, but with determination, civic pride, and the voices of women who made it happen.