Sadie Pope Dowdell Library

LibrariesUnited States11-50 Employees

The City of South Amboy's Public Library.

Sadie Pope Dowdell was born in the year 1900. At the age of 23, she became Head Librarian of the South Amboy Free Public Library.

Miss Dowdell was also Secretary and Treasurer of the Board of Trustees for the library. She relinquished the position of Secretary of the Board in 1941; and relinquished the position of Treasurer in 1949.

In May of 1960, after 37 years of service, the Board voted to give Miss Dowdell a three-week vacation. They closed the library for the last two weeks in July and the first week in August to accommodate her vacation.

In November of 1965, the Board received a letter of resignation from Miss Sadie Pope Dowdell; but she agreed to stay on until a qualified replacement could be found. In 1966, Miss Dowdell had arranged for a 15-minute Storytime with a storyteller for the summer program.

Unfortunately, in early 1970, Miss Dowdell became ill and was unable to continue in her post. This caused the Board to be forced to accept her resignation. A new Library Director wasn’t found until June of 1971.

In 1972, the Board voted to change the name of the library from South Amboy Free Public Library to Sadie Pope Dowdell Library to commemorate her 48 years of service as Library Director. Sadly, after being very ill for ten years, Miss Sadie Pope Dowdell died in February 1980.

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