Today is Samuel Stryker’s 235 birthday! He is our founder! Without Sam, Lambertville might not have had a library as soon as it did.
Samuel Stryker was a well-to-businessman who saw the need for a library in Lambertville. He left to the city in his will $1000 with the condition that Lambertville’s citizens had to match that amount, and then when the match was met, the library would be established.
The library wasn’t always in this building at 6 Lilly St. It took 18 years for the monetary match to be achieved, but when it was, the Stryker Library was established in a room over Cochran’s Drug store at Union and Coryell St. A year later, the library moved to rooms in the Masonic Building, at 19 Bridge St. In 1926, the City of Lambertville took over the library by referendum, and it was now known as the Lambertville Free Public Library. When I moved to Lambertville the library had moved from the City Hall basement to its present location just a few years before in 1988.
The library has come a long way from its humble beginnings, but one thing has never changed–the library is here for you. Thank you, Sam, and Happy Birthday!
See you in the stacks
/Annie
