If you’ve ever wondered how long Morley Library has been operating in Painesville, now is an appropriate time to ask. That’s because the organization is marking its 125th anniversary this month. The library opened in late 1899 on property donated by Jesse Healy Morley. It has continued to welcome visitors to that Downtown Painesville site over the years while also making changes, like opening a new building in 2004 and expanding services for the digital age. “It’s always been located downtown, and as such has been a part of the fabric of Downtown Painesville throughout its history,” Library Director Aurora Martinez told The News-Herald’s Bryson Durst. The library’s history dates to before the 1899 opening. According to Morley’s website, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union opened a temperance library and reading room in 1878. “The original librarian was Mary (Dean) and she wanted to make the library more inclusive, wanted to make it a true public library, so she was lobbying hard to get the temperance information minimized and not be the entire library,” said Morley genealogy and local history staff member Sarah Strang. Strang added that more people started donating books to the library. The property was eventually purchased by Cleveland-based industrialist Jesse Healy Morley, who paid to build the library and named it after his parents, Albert and Esther Morley. “He didn’t live in Painesville at the time, but he grew up here and he attended school on this site when it was a little one-room schoolhouse in the 1800s,” she said. Strang added that the library opened on Oct. 18, though the building’s dedication date is unknown. That initial building faced St. Clair Street, where the library’s current parking lot is now located, and lasted all the way until the new building opened in 2004, she said. The building’s footprint was expanded with two additions, one in the 1930s and one in the 1970s. Around the time of the first addition, the library created a children’s department. “They hired a children’s librarian, which was very forward-thinking at the time,” Strang said. “Usually just one librarian covered everything, so the fact that they had a dedicated children’s librarian was really something.” She said that after the library’s first century, it outgrew that initial building. The current three-story structure at 184 Phelps St. opened in 2004, and the old library was torn down and replaced with the current parking lot. The building is not the only part of the library that has changed in 125 years. The library’s services have evolved as well. “All of our services always are in response to the community’s needs and priorities,” Martinez said. “I think the biggest change from what I could see was in the 1980s when it went to a computerized catalog,” Strang said. The library later began to offer internet access and allow visitors to rent digital media, Martinez added. “We definitely moved into the technological age of providing computers and internet service for patrons, and also in the last 10 to 15 years providing the e-media platforms that people access virtually with their library card,” she said. Another recent change was when Morley Library joined Clevnet in 2018. Martinez said that the consortium, which includes 47 library systems in northern Ohio, includes access to a shared catalog and other shared services. She added that Morley also opened a new seed library in 2023 and a “Library of Things” that rents out nonbook items earlier this year. The library sends staff to outreach events, offers a monthly homebound delivery service for people who cannot visit the library and supplies books for the nearby Lake County Juvenile Detention Center, Martinez and Strang said. Looking to the future, Martinez does not expect to see major changes to the library’s role in the community. “Just kind of maintaining, being here as an anchor of the community, as a gathering place, as a place where everyone is always welcome to come in and everyone will be treated with respect,” she said. The News-Herald congratulates Morley Library on its 125th anniversary, and hopes that the organization continues its great work for many years into the future.