Jones Library

Specialties

The Jones Library is the public library serving the Amherst, MA community, offering library materials, programming, information resources, access to technology and more. The Special Collections department houses local history information, local author collections, and local genealogy resources as well as manuscript collections featuring Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost, as well as others. A vibrant Children’s Department offers books, movies, story hours, music programs, and a variety of other programming. Branch libraries serve the residents of North Amherst and South Amherst.

History

Established in 1928.

Samuel Minot Jones was a Civil War soldier and lumber trader whose family had lived in Amherst since 1839. In his 1905 will, Jones laid out a provision that should «no child survive me or all die before the age of twenty-​one years,» the money willed to his children should instead go to the town of Amherst to fund a free public library. He died on October 10, 1912. Eventually, Jones’ fortune was entrusted to the town of Amherst and the Jones Library trustees, an amount then totaling $ 661,747.08.

The Amity Street building, designed by Allan Cox of the Putnam & Cox architecture firm, was completed on November 1, 1928. The trustees and architects intentionally designed the building to look more like a home than a public space: the intention was for the library to play the role of «Mother Amherst welcoming her children home.»

The Jones Library has two branches in addition to the main Amity Street location, one in North Amherst, the other in South Amherst.