Library Celebration Marks 47th Year in Hillsborough

For most residents, it's almost as hard to imagine Hillsborough without a public library as it is imagining the township before the high school was built.

But there was such a time—although it's fading into the history books you'll find at the library. And in the same week radio's began playing Simon and Garfunkle's "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Tyme" and "The Return of the Magnificent Seven" was about to open in movie theaters (Hillsborough didn't have one of those, either!), the township's first public library opened in what was known as the DeCanto Shopping Center, next to Hillsborough Pharmacy. 

Before the library opened, residents could find some books from the county library at the Amwell Road home of Mark and Janet Singley, a regular stop for the bookmobile (note to younger readers: Imagine a school bus filled with bookshelves instead of seats—that's a bookmobile).  

"As Hillsborough grew from a community of a few scattered farms to a sprawling suburb, it became apparent that a new location was necessary," Mary Nunn,a library assistant, said. "With the assistance and cooperation of every service organization in the township, the library found rented room in a former beauty salon."
 
Nunn added that within 18 months, the library had grown from 4,000 books to 8,000 and on March 1, 1968, the library nearly doubled its original floor space
by annexing the adjoining store.  

In 1974, the library moved across Amwell Road, to the space currently housing Hapi Auto Parts, and in January of 1991, the Hillsborough Library moved to 18,000 square feet in the Hillsborough Municipal Building—which was later expanded to about 27,000 square feet.

Tuesday, the library will celebrate its birthday with cupcakes and candy for visitors during the day—but the real fun will be cutting a birthday cake at 11:15 a.m. Stop in and share your favorite library memories over a slice of cake—or email them to hilprg@sclibnj.org.