Skip to main content

About

Our Story

Atglen Public Library holds about 11,000 titles of popular materials for adults, young adults, and children, including books, movies, and magazines. Our public computing center features two Windows-based PCs with internet access. Bring your mobile device to access free WiFi and print directly from your device. We can help you print, copy, fax, and scan your documents.

Our membership in the Chester County Library System gives you access to over a million titles, and you can pick them all up here in Atglen. Download e-materials from Overdrive or the Libby app any time of day. Access CCLS databases in the library and in your home with your library card. Let us help you find the information you need.

History

There is some evidence of a book-sharing club in Atglen as early as 1885, formed by Rev. Algernon Marcellus of Penningtonville Presbyterian Church. In 1906 sixty people signed a petition to allow the borough council’s rooms to be used as a reading room for young men. A “circulating library” was founded by Mary Sener Young about 1916.

A public meeting was held in April 1945 to form a public library, with George Sener (Mary Young’s brother) as its first president. Atglen Borough Council agreed to locate the new library in the southwest corner of the Borough Hall and presented the Library with $2500, the amount accumulated on $1500 left by Miss Tacie Fawkes to form a library. The old Borough Hall was destroyed by fire in 1994, and the Library moved to Valley Avenue in 1996.

The Library moved to our current location on March 28, 2022, in the former Sener’s Store. While we haven’t discovered evidence that the library was ever located here, it feels like coming home.

 

Chester Valley Trail West

The Enola Low Grade is a big reason why Atglen is on the map. This feat of railroad engineering starts here in Atglen and runs west 26 miles to the Susquehanna River. Chester County Planning Commission is planning the Chester Valley Trail West to connect the Chester Valley Trail and Extension to the Enola Low Grade Trail in Lancaster County. Townships in Lancaster County are working on their own portions of the Enola Low Grade Trail. Visitors, please note that the trail has not yet been constructed in Atglen. There are no parking lots for, nor access to, the trail here. The only public facilities in Atglen are found in the Library: restrooms, a water fountain with bottle filler, and a vending machine. While we love to accommodate visitors, we have very limited weekend hours during the summer: Saturday from 9:00am to 1:00pm. To plan your trip, please visit these sites.

Atglen Borough, Chester County

Sadsbury Township, Lancaster County

Chester County Planning Commission

Lancaster County Planning Commission

Providence Township and Quarryville sections of the Enola Low Grade Trail

RiverRoots: Enola Low Grade

MENU CLOSE