Since its founding in 1956 by resolution of the Bucks County Commissioners, the Bucks County Free Library has served as a trusted resource for residents across the county. Today, the seven-branch county library system has locations in Bensalem, Doylestown, Langhorne, Levittown, Perkasie, Quakertown, and Yardley-Makefield.
Over the decades, the library has grown and evolved alongside the communities it serves. Its history reflects the changing needs of Bucks County—from its early development to its current role as a place for learning, discovery, connection, and access to information.
Explore the history of the Bucks County Free Library and discover the people, places, and milestones that have shaped our branches and their connection to the community.
Doylestown – District Center
Before moving to its current location, the library system headquarters occupied the first floor of a Bucks County office building. In the 1960’s, in addition to operating “Center County” branch in downtown Doylestown, the library system gradually took on management and then merged in 1981 with the Melinda Cox Library. Established by a bequest from Charles Cox, a Doylestown resident, Melinda Cox Library had opened in a private home in 1917 as the borough’s first free library.
The Doylestown District Center Library won the American Library Association/American Institute of Architects award in 1991 after its move to a new building in the heart of Doylestown’s cultural district. Over the years, thousands of children have made friends and shared books with “reading boy,” a beloved sculpture along the walkway to the front entrance.
Bensalem
The Bensalem Branch opened in 1981 as the seventh addition to the County library system. As one of the largest municipalities in the County, there was strong community support for a local library in Bensalem Township and the Commissioners established a construction fund for the library in 1980. Located on Hulmeville Road, at the time of its opening the new branch featured a capacity of 50,000 volumes and offered a specialized collection of early audio-visual equipment including both 16mm and 35mm projectors.
Langhorne
The Langhorne Branch traces its history to the late 1800s, when local philanthropist Anna Mary Williamson left a bequest to buy land and build a public library. The Langhorne Branch occupied the Romanesque revival building until moving to its current site in the 1970s. The branch is currently located on land donated by the nearby Woods School, now known as Woods Services, on the condition that the site be dedicated permanently to serving as a public library.
Levittown
The Levittown Branch evolved from a community effort to found a free public library in 1954. Stocked with book donations, the Levittown Public Library first opened in a family home, then moved to the basement of a pharmacy. By 1958, residents had raised enough grassroots money to build a new library, renaming it the Regional Public Library to reflect its area wide importance.
In the 1960’s the library merged with the county library system and became known as the Lower County Branch. The Levittown Branch moved to its current location on county property in the early 1990’s.
Perkasie
Local businessman Samuel Pierce founded a library in Perkasie in 1955 by purchasing the one-room Gehman schoolhouse, hiring a librarian, and stocking it with books. In the 1970s, when the library outgrew this space, it merged with the county library system and moved to Sixth Street in downtown Perkasie.
Funded in part with monies raised by the local community and built in the late 1980s, the current building on Arthur Street features open-beamed architecture characteristic of the period. Originally a rental property owned by the Pierce Library Association and located on Perkasie Borough land, the County now leases the premises from Perkasie Borough for use as the library.
Quakertown
Quakertown opened its doors in 1963 in a rented room of the American Legion Home. In 1973, Bucks County native and Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Michener made a visit to help dedicate a newly built Quakertown branch, now the police station serving the Quakertown community . Opened in 2004, the current Quakertown branch is the library system’s newest facility, and the branch with the greatest amount of square footage dedicated to public use.
Yardley-Makefield
Now part of a township complex in Lower Makefield, the original Yardley-Makefield branch was located on Lake Afton in Yardley until its merger with the county system in the late 1970s. The original Yardleyville Library Company was founded in 1845. Originally housed in a local store, then the offices of an attorney, “the library on the lake” was built in 1877 on land originally purchased from William Penn and donated by the heirs of William Yardley, an early settler.
