Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections

The Cornell Library was built between 1864 and 1866 on Tioga Street along the south side of Seneca St. For many years it was the largest building in Ithaca. It was sold in 1960 to the First National Bank of Ithaca and was demolished soon thereafter.

In the winter of 1866-67, Andrew D. White and Ezra Cornell were serving their terms in the state Senate, and Cornell also was occupied with opening the Cornell Library. In 1863, Cornell had purchased a lot on Tioga Street along the south side of Seneca, across the street from the City Hall, for $2,772.97. With a committee of local citizens, he planned a library with a capacity for 30,000 volumes, reading rooms, a lecture room seating 800 people and space for community organizations. To make the library self-supporting, the building contained commercial space for a post office, a bank and other businesses. The Cornell Library was incorporated April 5, 1864, and formally "presented to the citizens of Tompkins Co. N.Y. as a free Public Library" on Dec. 20, 1866.

At the opening, Cornell contributed 3,000 volumes, with the stipulation that he would add 1,000 volumes each year for 12 years. Many other community members also donated books to the library. At the dedication, it was further proposed that every person present should "during the ensuing holiday week, present to the Cornell Library at least one good book as a Christmas gift."

In its early years, the Cornell Library downtown had close ties to the university. For the first 20 years, the board of trustees held its meetings in the boardroom of the First National Bank, located in the library, and White was elected as the university's first president there on Nov. 21, 1866. Before there were adequate buildings on campus, the university also conducted lectures, meetings and Commencement exercises in the library.

-- Adapted by Susan S. Lang from the Web site "Invention and Enterprise: Ezra Cornell, a Nineteenth-Century Life."