History of MPL

In October of 1943 a library committee composed of Mrs. Jane Browne, Mrs. Cora Hoyer, Mrs. Alice Kelly, Mrs. Sara Sofko and Mrs. Betty Walthour met in the Manor School. Under the sponsorship of Mr. William Schmidt, Secretary of the Westmoreland County Chest and Principal of Manor School, to discuss the possibility of organizing a public library in Manor.  This committee formed the Manor Library Association.  Mrs. Cora Hoyer and Mrs. Betty Walthour were elected to represent the committee at the meetings of Manor Community Chest and were authorized to present a budget of $500 for the year 1944.

It was decided that the organization be known as the Manor Library Association, and would be a subsidiary organization of Manor Community Chest with the five members of the library committee to constituting the Board of Directors: Mrs. Betty Walthour - President; Mrs. Jane Browne – Vice President, Mrs. Alice Kelly- Secretary, Mrs. Cora Hoyer – Treasure and Mrs. Sara Sofko – Auditor.     

The Manor Public Library (MPL) opened November 1, 1944 with 115  books, in the facilities of the Manor School library. Every Wednesday, for one hour the library was open to the public.  MPL operated jointly with the school library until May of 1952.   

In 1952 the American Legion provided a room to MPL.  Hours of operation were Tuesday evenings and Thursday afternoons.  MPL will forever be thankful to Mr. Jim Kelly and other members of the American Legion for providing the necessary space and utilities without charge for 34 years. 

In February of 1986 the library moved to its present location, 57 Race Street.   Improvements to the building have been made and many more are in the planning stages.  

Throughout the years MPL has offered various community programs: essay, bookmark, and poster contests, craft classes for different ages, summer reading programs, story hours for preschoolers, computer classes, adult lectures, family and adult movie nights. The collection of MPL has grown from the beginning count of 115 books to over 12,000 books. The ability to access to the Internet and the opportunity to borrow material from almost any library in Pennsylvania has increased patron’s accessibility to vast amounts of material.  Patron membership and use of the library has also grown over the years, a trend we would like to encourage as we seek to serve the area of Manor and surrounding communities  

MPL is a member of the following groups; Access PA, Share Westmoreland, and Westmoreland County Federated Library System (WCFLS).  We would like to thank WCFLS for their guidance and program assistance. 

MPL would like to thank the individuals, and organizations that have given donations and memorials to MPL. And a very special thanks goes to the many volunteers and friends of the library who have given faithfully of their time and gifts.

With the community’s support, MPL will continue to serve many future generations  

Please email us any questions you have manorpublic.library@comcast.net

Please email us any questions you have manorpublic.library@comcast.net