The library is located at the corner of E Street and 10th Avenue in Belmar, two names later made famous by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and resulting in a large replica of Springsteen's Fender Esquire guitar being placed there.

Started by a women's group, the first Belmar Library opened on Sept. 23, 1911, and saw several different locations as it expanded.

Its design and layout by Edward Lippincott Tilton, who had also done Ellis Island, so impressed Andrew Carnegie, that he suggested it be used a model for and many other Carnegie libraries constructions.

[7] In 1935, the centennial of his Carnegie's birth, a copy of the portrait of him originally painted by F. Luis Mora was given to the library.

[8] In July 2011, an eight-foot high replica of Bruce Springsteen's legendary Fender Esquire guitar was placed on the library grounds at E Street and 10th Avenue, not far from where E Street Band member David Sancious lived in the 1970s.