The Delancey Floyd-Jones Free Library

For historians, dates are the pegs on which they can hang information. There are three dates that are especially significant in the life of the Delancey Floyd-Jones Free Library: 1896, 1952 and 1996.

1896 - The Library, located on Merrick Road across from Cedar Shore Drive, was the brainchild of Colonel Delancey Floyd-Jones, a member of the distinguished Jones/Floyd-Jones family who could date his American heritage back two hundred years. He was a West Point graduate who served ably in the Mexican War, The Civil War and the settlement of the western states after the war. He retired from the Army with the rank of Colonel in 1879 and spent several years traveling around the world. Toward the end of his life, which spanned 1826 to 1902, he wanted to provide for the needs of the expanding population of the Massapequas by building a public library. His relative by marriage, Coleman Williams, provided land next to Grace Church and he secured the services of a carpenter to build a simple one-story building, without a basement, to provide a place for residents to read and/or borrow books. Several of his relatives donated books, lamps and furniture, including a large center table and several chairs that are still in use today. The Library was open five days a week, but anybody who paid a $10 annual fee would receive a key, allowing entry at any time.

1952 - The population explosion in the Massapequas after World War II put enormous demands on existing services. There was a clear need for a library system to satisfy the needs of students and residents, so the Massapequa Public Library system was created. At that time, the Floyd-Jones Library was still serving residents, and its Trustees held several discussions with their Public Library counterparts about becoming part of the new system. The strongest points were that the Library had existed for many years and had a staff that was familiar with its collections as well as its lending procedures and could seamlessly continue to provide these services under a different status. Against these positive aspects were the Library's small size and the legal complexities that would be involved in changing its charter. After many discussions, the Public Library Trustees and the Floyd-Jones Library Trustees both decided against including the Floyd-Jones Library in the public system. As the public system grew, the Floyd-Jones Library continued to maintain daily hours and continued to loan books until the late 70s. There is, in fact, a card file containing names of students whose parents signed a printed agreement that they would be responsible for books taken out by their children. One of the more entertaining current experiences is to show the file to returning visitors who used the Library as students and whose parents signed for them.

1996 - The Floyd-Jones Library became used less and less as residents patronized the large public library branches on Central Avenue and in Bar Harbor. The absence of a full time librarian made it increasingly difficult to control its collections, despite the fact that it had stopped receiving new publications from the New York State Library in the late 1970s. A Friends of the Library group was created to raise funds for its upkeep and to maintain community interest, but it eventually went out of existence. In the early nineties, Trustees saw the need to redefine the Library's character and decided to restore its appearance to its early years and present it to the public as a historical building. They hired a librarian and tasked her with revising the Library's catalog, eliminating duplicate volumes and those that had deteriorated significantly, and focusing on volumes that dated from the 1900 to 1960 period. The result has been a building that contains many unique historical volumes, including memoirs by and histories of the Jones family, volumes documenting the Massapequas in the first half of the century, and unique collections of series that were written for youngsters, such as the Tom Swift series and the Nancy Drew mysteries.

The Trustees also had a new roof put on the building, had the trim repainted and secured landmark status from the Town of Oyster Bay. These activities have served to elicit appreciative responses from visitors, including Jones and Floyd-Jones family members, who may have used the facility when they were youngsters, or who are visiting the Library for the first time.

For those who would like to visit, the Library is staffed by volunteers on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 AM until 1 PM. Anyone who would like more information can call 516-799-6722.