Organized in 1890 initially as a historical society, Susquehanna County Historical Society and Free Library Association was chartered in 1907, the year its building was dedicated. Because the Cope family of Philadelphia had owned large tracts of land and a house in the area since the end of the eighteenth century, Francis R. Cope Jr. contributed handsomely to the library's construction. That probably accounts for the selection of an eminent Philadelphia firm for the project and may have influenced the use of the Georgian Revival as the style and Philadelphia's Woodford house (see PH133) and Mount Pleasant as models. Like Woodford, the Cope and Stewardson building is brick and has three bays with a pedimented central pavilion with its Palladian window, the belt course, and the balustrade all drawn from the Philadelphia mansion, but the quoins and lintels are drawn from Mount Pleasant (
PH133). The 1957 annex blends well with the original building.