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Easton Area Public Library

Carnegie libraries in PennsylvaniaLibrary buildings completed in 1903Public libraries in PennsylvaniaUse mdy dates from February 2018
Easton Area Public Library
Easton Area Public Library

The Easton Area Public Library serves Easton, Pennsylvania in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. It is a Carnegie library and was predated by a community library constructed by the Easton Library Company in 1811. With a grant in 1901 for $57,000 by industrialist Andrew Carnegie a new library began construction at 515 Church Street and was completed in 1903.The library system consists of the Main library serving as the headquarters, and the Palmer Branch located at 1 Weller Place, Palmer Township which was constructed in 1986.The main location in Easton, Pennsylvania includes the Marx Room, which was added in 1985 to serve as a local history room. This addition houses the largest collection of local history and genealogy in northeastern Pennsylvania with roughly 15,000 historical texts and materials about the Easton area and Northampton County.The library holds the oldest known map of Easton, which dates back to the early 18th century, and the original Flag of Easton, which was hoisted during the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in the Thirteen Colonies, which was read simultaneously in only three designated locations: Easton, Philadelphia, and Trenton, New Jersey, at noon on July 8, 1776, four days after its unanimous adoption by the Second Continental Congress.

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Easton Area Public Library
Church Street, Easton

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N 40.691944444444 ° E -75.213611111111 °
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Church Street
18042 Easton
Pennsylvania, United States
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Easton Area Public Library
Easton Area Public Library
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Easton, Pennsylvania
Easton, Pennsylvania

Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a 109-mile-long (175 km) river that joins the Delaware River in Easton and serves as the city's eastern geographic boundary with Phillipsburg, New Jersey. Easton is the easternmost city in the Lehigh Valley, a region of 731 square miles (1,890 km2) that is Pennsylvania's third-largest and the nation's 68th-largest metropolitan region with 861,889 residents as of the U.S. 2020 census. Of the Valley's three major cities, Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton, Easton is the smallest with approximately one-fourth the population of Allentown, the Valley's largest city. The greater Easton area includes the city of Easton, three townships (Forks, Palmer, and Williams), and three boroughs (Glendon, West Easton, and Wilson). Centre Square, the city's town square in its downtown neighborhood, is home to the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, a memorial for Easton area veterans killed during the American Civil War. In the first half of the 20th century, Centre Square was referred to locally as the Circle. The Peace Candle, a candle-like structure, is assembled and disassembled every year atop the Civil War monument for the Christmas season.Norfolk Southern Railway's Lehigh Line, formerly the main line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, runs through Easton on its way to Bethlehem and Allentown heading west across the Delaware River to Phillipsburg, New Jersey. Easton is located 14 miles (23 km) northeast of Allentown, 51 miles (82 km) north of Philadelphia, and 64 miles (103 km) west of New York City.

Peace Candle
Peace Candle

The Peace Candle is a tower-like structure erected every Christmas season in Easton, Pennsylvania. The approximately 106-foot (32 m) tall structure, which resembles a giant candle, is assembled each year over the Soldiers' & Sailors' Monument, a Civil War memorial located in the city's Centre Square. It is typically assembled in mid November and lighted over Thanksgiving weekend and disassembled in early February each year.The Peace Candle was first erected in 1951, and has been put up every year (except two) since then. Due to damage or disrepair, the Peace Candle has been replaced with new candle structures twice since the original construction. The first candle lasted until 1968, the second candle from 1969 to 1989, and the current candle was built in 1990.The structure is dedicated to the Easton area men and women who have served or are serving in the United States armed forces.It has been said to be the largest non-wax Christmas candle in the country. Although conceived with the hopes of restoring Easton's pre-20th century reputation for elaborate Christmas decorations, city officials also believed a candle would serve as a symbol of peace for all religions and denominations. Due to its symbolism for peace and its placement over a Civil War monument, the candle has been the site of several anti-war protests over the decades. Some have criticized the Peace Candle, calling it a symbol of the over-commercialization of Christmas, and condemning the fact that it covers a war monument.