Autumn Dickerman, 6, of Butler eats a cookie at an open house Friday marking the start of Butler Public Library's 125th anniversary. The library opened in 1894.

The Butler Public Library kicked off a yearlong celebration of its 125th anniversary with an open house Friday.

Amid the cupcakes, historic displays and time capsule contents, the library's special collections librarian and genealogist Margaret Hewitt traced the library's rise from a rented room on West Jefferson Street in 1894, to its present building at 218 N. McKean St.

“On Feb. 16 and 17th in 1894, it began on West Jefferson Street as a single rented room between a grocer, a fish shop and a horse stable,” Hewitt said. “It wasn't just a library, but it was also the Women's Industrial Exchange that sold homemade clothes and homemade foods to fund the library.

“So doing a bake sale to support the library is literally an idea as old as time. That's how we got started,” she said.

“It started with 432 books,” said Lori Hinderliter, library executive director. “Today we have 103,000 cataloged items, whether printed or electronic, maps and CDs.”

“In the 1970s, we even used to have 30 pieces of framed art that we would lend out to people wanting to change their decor. There's still a few around, although they are not checked out anymore,” Hinderliter said.

The library has always tailored its offerings to the requests of the patrons, Hewitt said.

“The library's first branch location opened in 1910 in Lyndora on the Red Row which was tenement housing for immigrant workers for Standard Steel,” she said. “The library supplied them with reading materials and newspapers in their native languages and offered English lessons.”

As the library moved through history, settling in its present location in 1921, Hewitt said, it changed its offerings.

“We offered popular magazines in the '60s, vinyl albums and film reels,” Hewitt said.

Hinderliter added, “I remember around 1987 when we decided we had better get two VHS tapes of 'Top Gun' because we thought it was going to be popular.'

Another library feature that proved popular is the genealogy section, which has been at the library for nearly 40 years.

“It started in the 1970s, as there was a big effort to get as much of the old Butler County newspapers as we could,” Hewitt said. “We got a lot of guidance from Audrey Fetters, the go-to Butler County genealogist for many years.”

The library then received a grant to help get started from the Edgar W. Weir Family Foundation, which still offers its support.

“We are not in a large space, but there is a lot of history there,” Hewitt said. “There's a lot of material connected to local families and businesses.”Because of word of mouth recommendations, Hinderliter said, “Eighty percent of the mail is people writing to the genealogy department.”Hewitt said her section averages 1,000 search requests annually, fueled by the growing popularity of people tracing their family roots.The library expanded in 1967, combined with Luther Hall in the late 1980s and added a music room, a teen room and expanded its courtyard to better serve its 33,000 patrons in the city and Butler Township.Hinderliter said the library is planning special programming and exhibits throughout 2019 to mark its anniversary.During National Library Week, April 7 to 13, the staff plans to collect patrons' memories and stories about the library.“Margaret is on a mission to track down several versions of our library cards throughout the years,” Hinderliter said. “A few very careful patrons still have the orange or blue paper cards with the metal strips.”The big celebration event is an old-fashioned ice cream social hosted by the library from 1 to 3 p.m. June 22.“There were a lot of things that shared a birth in 1894 — ice cream parlors, the first sale of Coca Cola — so we'll have Coke floats and Hershey's Chocolate was founded in 1894,” Hinderliter said. “So we are in good company. ”

This is how the library on McKean Street appeared in 1966. It was built in 1921.