Nickel Books and Hidden Libraries: Front Royal’s Tabard Inn Library

Before Front Royal had a public library, residents briefly had access to a national circulating subscription library through the Tabard Inn Library. Founded in 1902, the system placed distinctive revolving bookcases in drugstores, shops, offices, homes, trains, and steamships, allowing members to exchange books through a distributed network of local stations.
This talk will focus on Front Royal’s 1903 Tabard Inn Library connection, said to have been established by Mrs. B. M. Cone, Virginia’s first kindergarten teacher, at Trout’s drug store on Main Street. I’ll explore how this “hidden library” worked, the monthly arrival of 130 to 150 books, the five-cent “nickel book” exchange model, and how this local story fits into the longer history of reading, education, and library access in Warren County.
The research grew out of supporting Colleen Snyder, author of In Search of Giants, with her work last year for the Silver Tea fundraiser on the history of Samuels Public Library. That research eventually led me into the broader story of the Tabard Inn Library and this nearly forgotten reading network.