Pittsford Community Library History: How It Began with 50 Books in a Corner Grocery Store

The corner of 1 South Main Street looks like a lot of things now, but in 1920 it was a grocery store — and the first home of the Pittsford Community Library.

Fifty Books and the Start of the Pittsford Community Library

Fifty Books and the Start of the Pittsford Community Library

According to Pittsford Town and Village Historian Vicki Masters Profitt, the library was formed in 1920 by Una Hutchinson and Margaret Becker Malone. They borrowed 50 books from the Library Extension Division of New York State and arranged them on two shelves in George and Ellena Thomas's grocery at 1 South Main Street. The library was open two hours every Saturday afternoon.

That's the whole founding. No endowment. No building campaign. Two neighbors decided their village deserved a library and started one the way you'd start a book club — with books you borrowed and a corner of a room someone was willing to share.

The Saturday hours filled. The collection outgrew its grocery-store corner. Within four years, the community had decided this was a permanent institution, not an experiment.

From Monroe Avenue to a Building Given in Love

From Monroe Avenue to a Building Given in Love

In 1924, the library was officially chartered by the Village of Pittsford and moved to what the historical records call The Little House at 18 Monroe Avenue. According to Profitt's account of the PCL's founding, by 1932 — just 12 years after Hutchinson and Malone set up those two shelves — the collection held nearly 6,000 books, with 31,000 annual circulations passing through village hands.

From 50 to 6,000 in a decade is not gradual adoption. It is a community that was waiting for someone to start.

The next gift came from a family. In 1937, Mary Wiltsie Field purchased the property at 21 North Main Street and donated it to the Village as a memorial to her father, Charles Hastings Wiltsie. The Charles Hastings Wiltsie Memorial Building was dedicated December 30, 1937 — giving the library a permanent address on the village's main street, not because a government program funded it, but because a resident decided to do something lasting for the place she loved.

What a Community Builds When It Decides Something Matters

What a Community Builds When It Decides Something Matters

In 1959, the Pittsford Community Library joined the Monroe County Library System. Circulation increased by 80 percent almost immediately — a local foundation extended across a county-wide network. The library that started with two Saturday hours now reached more readers than its founders could have imagined from behind those grocery shelves.

The building, the collection, the county partnership — none of it was delivered from outside. It was built by residents: two women who borrowed some books, a village that kept showing up on Saturday afternoons, and a family that gave a building so the collection would have a permanent home.

The address at 1 South Main Street has changed hands many times since 1920. The Pittsford Community Library is at 24 State Street.