The Beverly Free Library, serving Edgewater Park and Beverly, was started in 1895 by the Paragraph Club, a local women’s club. Between 1895 and 1908, the Library moved from house to house, and after 1908 started sharing space with local businesses. In 1923, it was decided the Library needed a building of its own and fundraising began. A local architect was engaged to design it. And in 1929 the Library and War Memorial was dedicated at 441 Cooper Street, where it remains today.

All fundraising, and the decades of running and maintaining the Library since opening day, are thanks to local supporters and sponsors, without whom this Library would not exist.

Why serving Edgewater Park and Beverly? In 1933, the City of Beverly split into the City of Beverly and the Township of Edgewater Park. But the Library’s mission hasn’t changed. It still provides books and now DVDs, audio books and computers to its patrons in both communities, free for the borrowing.

This beautiful Library, the World War One Memorial and the award-winning Library gardens sit at the edge of Beverly City’s downtown, within a couple blocks of the Beverly-Edgewater Park station on the RiverLine.