Penn Wynne Photo Location Revealed

Last week, we asked readers to identify the location of a photo taken somewhere in Penn Wynne before 1950. 

As two readers guessed correctly, the photo was taken at the previous location of Penn Wynne Library, at Manoa Rd. and Henley Rd. in Penn Wynne. The building was the home of Penn Wynne Library from 1929 to 1949. A residential home now stands on the property.

In 1929, according to the Penn Wynne Library website:

... an ambitious group of women collected 35 books and raised $7.00 at a Book Tea in Penn Wynne. These strong-minded women arranged to start a library in a local real estate office, getting their sons to mow the lawn, their husbands to paint the shutters and local merchants to repair the roof. They held card parties to raise money for new books."

The library was open from 2-4 pm, 2 afternoons a week, and one evening from 7-9 pm. The building was so small that if a volunteer librarian had a baby in a coach - the coach had to remain outside. If it started to rain, the library closed, so the librarian could take her baby home out of the rain!

The first trained librarian was hired in 1933, and two years later, the Lower Merion Library Association was formed, which united the six township libraries and allowed them to apply for funding from the state, according to the Penn Wynne Library website.

The land where the library now stands, on Overbrook Parkway, was purchased in 1946, and the library dedication ceremony was held three years later.

The library has gone through a series of renovations in its day: it doubled its size in 1959, got central air conditioning in the 1960s, and saw its last complete renovation in 1989, at which point an expanded children's room was added.

Penn Wynne is due for another upgrade, but is last on the township's list of library expansion projects.

The library will be holding its annual 5K Run/Walk on Oct. 13.

Check back Monday for a new historical photo challenge.