Harry C. Trexler Masonic Library

Trexler presented a collection of Masonic books to the Masonic Temple Association as a beginning of a research library on Freemasonry. That same year, he paid for library shelving and, in 1928, he underwrote the hiring of a librarian to catalog the books. On the death of General Trexler in November 1933, his will provided for the maintenance and expansion of the Library, with investments that would assure $2,000 a year. The Library still receives only $2,000 a year. The minutes of the Trexler Masonic Library Board of Trustees in 1960 included a brief history of the Library that was related by Daniel W. Hamm, then the Library Director. Brother Hamm noted the following history:
Mr. George Roberts of Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, decided to dispose of his Masonic library of 2,500 volumes. He offered it to a Mr. Rice of Bethlehem, a second-hand dealer, …, Dr. John Stoudt, always in quest of material relating to Pennsylvania Folklore, frequently stopped by at Mr. Rice’s place of business. Mr. Rice told Mr. Stoudt about Robert’s (sic) library collection and Mr. Stoudt, in turn, took up the matter with General Trexler. The outcome of it was that General Trexler requested Charles R. Roberts, Alfred Lewis, and Mr. Hamm to examine the library and report to him as to the condition of the books and whether they were worth the price asked for. The committee of three performed its duty and made a favorable report. It was then that General Trexler unfolded his plan of establishing a Masonic Research Center for Masons of the Lehigh Valley. Masons should be grateful to the founder for his great dream and should exert every effort possible to bring it to full fruition. The Last Will and Testament of Harry C. Trexler, 15th day of April 1929, declared in paragraph 6:
I direct my Executor to set apart a sum, which in their judgment shall be
sufficient under all probable contingencies to yield a net annual income of Four Thousand Dollars ($4,000), and I give an bequest such sum unto my Executors and Trustees in trust as a separate and independent fund, and to collect and receive the income thereof and to expend out of said income, each year perpetually in the same manner as I have been doing in the past, the sum of Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000), for the school children of the City of Allentown, at their annual Romper Day Exercises, and also to expend out of said income, each year, the sum of Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000) for the extension and maintenance of the library which I have presented to the Masonic Lodges of the City of Allentown. Today, the Library has approximately 7,000 titles of Masonic and related subjects. The collection also includes general publications of histories, genealogy, and thousands of documents. In the collection are original publications from the early eighteenth century, in addition to many rare books, documents and Masonic artifacts.