Feb 8, 2024
Centennial Kick-Off Held on February 8th
The Beach Haven Library began its Centennial Year with an event on February 8th that packed the house!
A Thursday in early February may seem like an odd day for such a momentous occasion, however, we chose that date for our first event because it also happened to be a special date for one of our very dear employees, Eileen Mitchell. February 8th marks the date she began work 40 years ago and she has been a faithful and devoted employee of the library and the borough of Beach Haven ever since.
“It has been my privilege and pleasure to know Eileen Garabo Mitchell for over 60 years – as a student, a friend, and a dedicated employee of the Beach Haven Public Library,” Virginia Lambert of the library’s Board of Trustees said in her remarks. “We are extremely fortunate to have such a loyal, hardworking and genuinely kind person on our staff who truly makes everyone feel welcome upon entering. Her warmth, her amazing memory for people and what they like to read, her determination to find something suitable for everyone who enters and her encyclopedic knowledge of the building and everything in it are just a few of the attributes Eileen brings with her each and every day. She’s commonly referred to as the heart and soul of our beloved library and that is honestly not an exaggeration.”
Speaking of the library building, Councilwoman Colleen Lambert added, “When you look around this grand old lady today it’s hard to believe that just one year ago it was completely shut down at this point in time and undergoing a massive remediation project that ended up taking almost 8 months. Seeing this building down to its bare bones with no furniture, books, or artifacts/equipment was unsettling to say the least but, like the proverbial Phoenix, it has come back and she’s almost in as good a shape today as the day the building was dedicated back in 1924.”
Library Director Jane DeHaven provided a brief history of the library: “The earliest version of the Beach Haven library dates back in the 1880s – 140 years ago – when a gift of books for the children of the town was donated by Dr. Edward Williams, who, along with Charles Parry of the Parry House and the Baldwin Hotel, was a partner in the Baldwin Locomotive Works.
At first, the library collection was housed in the home of Samuel Copperthwaite on Engleside Avenue. It was later moved into one of the Sunday School rooms of the Kynett Methodist Church, which had been built in 1890.
After Walter Pharo donated the old Quaker Meeting House to the town, the Reverend Alexander Corson of the Methodist Church began work, with the help of his wife, to turn the former Meeting House into a viable library. It was well on its way by 1908, when he left for his next posting.
In 1923, Walter’s widow, Elizabeth Pharo, reached out to the library’s board of trustees and offered to build a new library for the town, entirely at her own expense.
It would be two blocks down from the Methodist church on a corner lot which she owned at Third Street and Beach Avenue. The library would be dedicated to the memory of her husband’s parents, Archelaus Ridgway Pharo and Louisa Willits Pharo, who founded Beach Haven, as well as to her late husband Walter.
The next time you check-out a book, if you sneak a glance at the bookshelves to the left of the circulation desk, you can see pictures of Elizabeth and Walter, as well as her in-laws, and the Reverend Corson.
The Beach Haven Public Library is a prime architectural treasure on Long Beach Island and a direct link to a colorful past that is the town’s most precious heritage.
Mrs. Elizabeth Pharo’s gift to the town, now 100 years old, is as stunning as the day it was built, and if we do say so ourselves, it’s the finest library on the New Jersey coast.
