Scoville Public Library in Salisbury, Connecticut claims to be the oldest public library; they have a plaque.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin started the first library in Philadelphia
The address of the Franklin County Public Library is: 106 First Street, Meadville, 39653 0336
Benjamin Franklin is credited with starting the first lending library and first fire department in the US. He also invented bifocal glasses and an effective heating stove.
The first public library was opened in 1747 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Benjamin Franklin. It was called the Library Company of Philadelphia and allowed members to borrow books for free.
Benjamin Franklin's subscription library, "The Library Company of Philadelphia," is the first of its kind in what would become the United States Benjamin Franklin's subscription library, "The Library Company of Philadelphia," is the first of its kind in what would become the United States Before that in 1701, the Anglican Society for the Propagation of the Gospel began collecting books in England to establish church libraries in American Episcopalian Churches. Many churches, which existed before the days of good public libraries, still have church libraries.
The first 'lending' public library was in England, it is located in the London Guildhall and it was built in 1425. The first library in Europe was a private one, founded in France by King Charles V in 1368.
Believing in the importance of self-education, he founded the first public library in America in 1731 and chartered it in 1742 as the Philadelphia Library.
The Library Company is America's first successful lending library and oldest cultural institution. It was founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin as a subscription library supported by its shareholders, as it is to this day. See: http://www.librarycompany.org/about/index.htm -- Libarian, University of Hawaii at Manoa
The Academy and College of Philadelphia which evolved into the University of Pennsylvania, the first Pennsylvania fire department, the first American Hospital, Franklin and Marshall College and the first public lending library.
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one thing is: he started the first city hospital another thing is: he founded the first public library