History of the Perry Hall Branch
BALTIMORE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
(Welcome to Your New Perry Hall Branch
- - BCPL Flyer 1963)
In July, 1951 the Kingsville Homemakers Club
started a community library, open 6 hours a week, to serve the Kingsville-Perry Hall area.
By 1952 this library had 157 readers who had borrowed 4,000 books.
In September, 1952 the Baltimore County Public
Library’s first bookmobile started service in the northern part of the county
providing service to the area and the community library was closed in April, 1953.
In March, 1962 the Northeastern Library
Association was formed by a group of citizens from the Kingsville-Perry Hall- White
Marsh-Loreley_- Bradshaw-Fork area who felt that the population now justified a branch
library.
In November, 1962, through the combined efforts
of the Board of Library Trustees and the Northeastern Library Association, funds were made
available by the County Executive and the County Council, in the 1963 budget, to lease a
building, to purchase furniture and equipment, to provide staff salaries and to purchase
an adequate book stock and other materials for a branch library in the Perry Hall area.
"After strong lobbying by groups like Perry
Hall Improvement Association, county officials approved a lease for the library in March
of 1963. (William) Schaefer demolished the Halbert House, which had deteriorated since its
days as a Germantown hotel, and completed the library that summer. The brick, two-story
building seemed large enough for the growing community.
Opening ceremonies were held on September 8,
1963, drawing crowds of civic leaders , families and elected officials. Prominent guests
included U.S. Representative Clarence Long and Baltimore County Executive Spiro
Agnew." (Crossroads. The History of Perry Hall, Maryland. Pg. 126,
David Marks, Gateway Press, Inc. Baltimore, Maryland. 1999 and reprinted 2000.)
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