contact
information
Bedford Free Library
Village Green
Bedford, New York 10506
Tel: 914 234 3570
Fax: 914 234 0546
www.westchesterlibraries.org
www.westchesterlibraries.org/libs/bedford_village
quote
“The Library is very central to the Bedford Community. We are
pleased to be a resource for community information, library materials,
entertainment media and even a place to meet a friend. Having Shodie
Alcorn as our Children’s Librarian means that at a very young
age children have a positive connection here, and that is most important
to us.”
-Paula
Desperito, Director
bio
In 1797 a certificate of incorporation of the Bedford Circulating Library
was filed with the County Clerk of Westchester.
There is no record of how long this library functioned,
nor of a direct connection with later Bedford libraries. In the schoolhouse
on the Green there is a wooden case of books that was part of this first
library; these books were used in the school from 1829 to 1912.
Two other libraries, one in the Post Office with 200 volumes,
and another in St. Matthew’s Church with 500 volumes, served the
reading public of early Bedford.
The Bedford Free Library was established on March 19,
1903. The Bedford Academy, built in 1807, was rented for the Library;
it then housed 700 volumes in a part of the present adult room.
In 1972 the Bedford Academy building was given to the
Bedford Historical Society.
