The History of Thrall

of their "literary taste and culture." It was open every week
day from sundown to ten o'clock. Annual memberships were $3, and 11fe memberships were $25.
After the Civil War interest in the Lyceum faded, and it
ceased to exist by 1877. No mention was made of the fate of the
remaining volumes. 26
Before a public library was organized in Middletown it was
these much earlier associations that were the centers of literary
discussion and study in the village. Middletown, incorporated as
a village in 1848, was forty years later incorporated as a city.
Middletown's public library service may trace its earliest
history back to 1846 when pupils of the old Orchard Street School
were allowed to borrow books from the school library. Later,
residents were permitted to borrow books on Friday afternoons
from the school on Orchard Street. 27 Mary K. Van Keuren,
Middletown librarian from 1889-1922, made mention in her
Descriptive Annual Library Report of 1913 that the first steps in establishing a public library came in the late 1870's when "books
of the old school library were gathered together and brought up
to the Board of Education, and a subscription started for new
books." 28 Williams' account puts the date at 1879 and said that
the room designed as a library was at Wallkill Academy (a private