Look Back: Hoyt homestead in Kingston gifted in 1909 for library

Apr. 14—When the will of Frank W. Hoyt was probated in Norristown near Philadelphia just days after his death on April 11, 1909, he gifted the former Hoyt homestead on Wyoming Avenue to the Borough of Kingston to be used as a reading room and library.

Frank W. Hoyt, 43, lived for several years in Wyncote but he never forgot his hometown of Kingston.

"This Hoyt homestead is situated on Wyoming Avenue, a short distance below Hoyt Street. It is a splendid big stone structure on a lot with a frontage of 200 feet on Wyoming Avenue and which extends all the way through College Avenue," the Wilkes-Barre Record reported April 19, 1909.

In the event Kingston Borough denied to accept the Hoyt homestead as a reading room and library, Frank W. Hoyt in his will divided the home into two parts, going to the Grace Baptist Church and Temple College.

"The maintenance of the library will devolve upon the borough unless some other generous citizen or organization comes forward with an offer to take up this part of the work," the Record reported.

Fortunately, Kingston Borough Council passed a resolution June 7, 1909, agreeing to take possession of the Hoyt homestead and passed another ordinance on Feb. 20, 1911, to establish the Hoyt Library.

"Because the borough was not prepared to remodel the house, it was rented until within a year of the expiration of the option and the collected rent was used for the remodeling," according to a story celebrating Kingston's Centennial published in the Wilkes-Barre Record on Sept. 5, 1957.

The person who rented the Hoyt home was Oscar M. Lance, whose lease expired at the end of 1910.

A Hoyt Library committee was formed within Kingston Borough as the borough initially designated $25,000 to organize, purchase furniture and remodel the Hoyt homestead into the library. The home was relatively in good shape with spacious rooms and a functioning heating and plumbing system.

It took nearly two decades work but the Hoyt Library opened to the public on Jan. 2, 1928, with Margaret Jackson being the first librarian.

"The staff consisted of a trained, experienced librarian, an experienced cataloguer, who was also a children's librarian, and an experienced secretary who attended to the bookkeeping, stenographic and typing service and also did some work with the public," the Record reported Sept. 5, 1957.

Students at the nearby Wyoming Seminary received extra credit for volunteering at the Hoyt Library by returning books to shelves and cleaning.

Due to its location, the Hoyt Library suffered damage in the March 1936 St. Patrick's Day Flood and in June 1972 by Tropical Storm Agnes.

The community came together after the 1936 flood to replenish lost volumes of books with donations.

"Hoyt's Library's wide collection of interesting books has been increased with a valuable set of Catholic Encyclopedia, a gift of College Misericordia at Dallas, and a set of 25 children's books from the H.R. Hunting Company of Springfield, Mass., the Record reported June 23, 1936.

The West Side Women's Club in 1936 donated $25 that was spent to purchase 48 children's books as the club generously donated monetary gifts and books through the decades.

During World War II, the Hoyt Library collected donations of books that were packaged and shipped to soldiers overseas called "Victory Book Campaign."

The Hoyt Library hosted showcases for local artists in the 1940s through the 1970s attracting thousands of visitors, and collected Bell Telephone Company phone books from across the country.

A $180,000 construction project in the early 1960s added a new building four times the size of the original Hoyt home.

Another addition was added in 1987 that expanded space for staff and the children's wing. During a winter storm on Feb. 14, 2007, the weight of snow and sleet caused the roof of the children's wing to collapse. It took two years to renovate and rebuild as the children's wing reopened in October 2009.

Ironically, about 100 years before Frank W. Hoyt gifted the Hoyt homestead to Kingston for a library, his grandfather, Daniel Hoyt, and his merchant business partners set aside a room inside their store on Wyoming Avenue to be used as a "reading room."