On May 14, 1913, the Delmar Progress Club, a women’s group, organized the Delmar Free Library Association, Bethlehem’s first public library. It opened in a room on the second floor of a schoolhouse on the corner of Kenwood Avenue and Adams Street, and the Board of Regents granted a provisional charter to the library in July 1913.  Several years later, a donation of land at Hawthorne Avenue and Adams Place allowed construction of the first library building.  Progress Club volunteers provided staff and administration until the school district took over proprietorship in 1931, when the growth in holdings and popularity made it clear that volunteers alone were not sufficient to run the library.

The Friends of Bethlehem Public Library was officially formed on September 16, 1954, by nine people who had been part of the Friends of the Library Committee.  This committee had offered suggestions and organized community support for the expansion of the library building at Hawthorne Avenue and Adams Place.  The Friends have continued to be a vital source of support for the library in the ensuing 70 years, including during the completion and renovation of our current library.