Pictorial History of the Dayton Metro Library

Dayton’s first library was established in 1805, as the Social Library Society of Dayton, a subscription library and the first library incorporated under the laws of Ohio. Benjamin Van Cleve was the first librarian, and the books were kept in his cabin, which was also the village post office, on the southeast corner of First and St. Clair Streets, about two blocks from where the Dayton Metro Library now stands. After Van Cleve’s death in 1821, the books were tended by another librarian until 1835 when the library was disbanded and the books sold at auction.

The Dayton Metro Library is a direct descendant of the Dayton Library Association formed in 1847. The Association continued until 1860, when monetary problems caused it to cease operations and transfer its books, by gift, to the free public school library, which was controlled by the Board of Education. The Public School Library had opened in the fall of 1855 under a law passed by the Ohio Legislature in 1853, authorizing the levying of property taxes to establish free libraries in the school districts of the state. This was the beginning in Ohio of the free, tax-supported library system.

The library moved several times until 1888, when the first library building was built in Dayton in the center of Cooper Park. In 1893, the library added a museum of natural history and changed its name to Dayton Public Library and Museum. In 1955 the library’s museum collections were transferred to a separate organization, the Dayton Museum of Natural History, which was renamed Booneshoft Museum of Discovery in 1999.

In 1956, Dayton Public Library and Museum became known as Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library. In 2002, its name was changed to Dayton Metro Library.

In 1960, construction of the present Main library building began at a site adjacent to the old library in Cooper Park. The new Main Library opened in 1962, and the original building was razed.

On the following pages you will find a number of photographs from our archives.