Santa Claus Lane ornament

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Santa Claus Lane ornament depicts Olean Library

OLEAN — The Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce’s 2021 Santa Claus Lane ornament is a depiction of the Olean Public Library.

Through the ornament sales, holiday lights are funded and can be lit in Olean from November to early January. The ornament, in a series created by artist Kathleen McDonald, is $25.

Included with each ornament is a brief history.

Olean’s first library began when a small group of citizens met on March 25, 1871, in the private school operated by Mary Lyon. By the end of their meeting, the Olean Library Association had been born, and the group spent the next several months raising funds and searching for a location.

The new library opened Aug. 15, 1871, in space donated by John G. Pelton within his tailor shop on the west side of Union Street.

Slowly the library grew, and by 1878 its collections could no longer be contained within the tailor shop space. During the period from 1878 to 1888, the library moved to several temporary locations, including a rented room on the Birge block, the second floor of the Exchange Bank, the Olean Opera House and 102 Hamilton St.

Community business leader George V. Forman, seeing the need for a large and permanent space, offered to donate his former office property to the library association in 1888, asking that the association create an endowment. An enormous fundraising effort was made by individual donors as well as by the Ladies Library Endowment Society, led by Julia E. Lamper Jewell, and the requirements for Forman’s donation were met. The Forman Library opened at 85 Union St. on April 2, 1889.

On Dec. 13, 1906, the institution was renamed “Olean Public Library” and became free to all citizens of Olean. By October 1908, the library board also donated the Forman Library property to Olean’s Union Free School District, allowing the library to be supported through annual school tax funding.

A new facility funded through the Andrew Carnegie endowment was planned to meet the needs of the rapidly growing Olean community. Architect Edward Tilton was hired, and the cornerstone for the new building was laid on July 3, 1909.

By the mid-1960s, it became apparent that the magnificent building was no longer a practical facility for daily library operations. After considering doubling the size of the Carnegie building, the library board instead decided to renovate the former Loblaw’s Supermarket into a new library that would easily be handicappedaccessible.

The new facility opened in 1973 at 134 N. Second St. and Laurens Street and it continues to meet the changing informational needs of the community, providing access to computers, scanners, fax machines, copiers, audiobooks, e-books, digital magazines, databases and more. Ornaments are available at the Chamber office at 301 N. Union St. They can also be purchased at the library. Ornaments can also be shipped outside Olean for an additional $6 for shipping/handling charges per ornament. All ornaments are available online for purchasing as well at the Chamber’s shopping site — shop.oleanny.com. For more information, call 372-4433 or email santa@oleanny.com.