The Cliffside Park Public Library: A Pillar of the Community
Niki Anagnostou
Many people view the Cliffside Park Public Library as a home of books, movies, music, and magazines. However, the library is also the home to the large, diverse community of Cliffside Park. For many years now, the Cliffside Park Public Library has been the pillar of our community.
The library represents many different things to people. Whether that be a place for knowledge or a place for community, no one can deny the importance of the library. Despite all hardships that have come its way, it will never cease to be home to the community of Cliffside Park.
The library has faced many struggles because of the pandemic. The Friends of the Cliffside Park Free Public Library needs your help now to support the library; you can do so by participating in fundraising and social events.
The Cliffside Park Public Library is not only rich with resources but also with its history. Starting in the late 1890s, four female Cliffside Park residents would gather in their homes and discuss the books they had read. Several years later, the Edgewater Library Club closed. Cliffside Park residents had been using this library’s resources and now had no library to use. Mrs. Jane E. Coulter (the principal of School #3 at the time) joined with several local officials and community members to raise money for a free public library in Cliffside Park.
On June 11, 1913, a single room in School #3 became Cliffside’s first library. The Edgewater Library Club, and several Borough members donated books to the new library. With the library’s opening in 1913, Mr. Robert Morton became the library’s director; upon his resignation in 1915, Nancy Bowman took over. By the mid-1910s, a vote to create an official free public library in Cliffside Park passed unanimously on the 1918 General election.
Arthur M. Agnew recorded the library’s incorporation into the State of New Jersey’s rolls on May 13, 1919. Roughly two decades later, the Friends of the Cliffside Park Public Library—a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the CPPL—was created. Bessie Woods, a Cliffside Park resident, donated her property and home to be Cliffside Park’s very own public library upon her passing in 1964. In 1979, the Cliffside Park Library we know today was declared open to the public.
On November 30, 2009, tragedy struck when a fire nearly destroyed the entire building. After the library’s grand reopening, tribute was paid to the Palisades Amusement Park in the new library's architecture for having provided a means for them to continue their work without their normal location. The temporary location of the library during construction was just across the street from the amusement park. Today, the Cliffside Park Public Library stands near the municipal building. The library provides a home, shelter, and endless fountain of knowledge to anyone who wants to experience the true definition of what being a community means.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the Cliffside Park Public Library remains true to its mission with the help of its dedicated staff, workers, and volunteers by keeping the library open and safe. The library works hard to carry out its mission of making the library a place filled with a sense of community and where all viewpoints are accepted, as outlined in the Library Bill of Rights.
The Cliffside Park Library began with a group of passionate individuals who wanted to bring both resources and a sense of community to Cliffside. With the help of the Friends of the Cliffside Park Free Public Library, it can continue doing so.
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