On June 12, 1883, the association elected a board of trustees, approved a constitution and by-laws, and made plans for establishing the library.

[1][2] Financial difficulties, infrequent board meetings, a lack of facilities, and a precipitous drop in subscribers lead the eventual close of the PLA.

It held its final meeting on October 28, 1899, and the proposal was made that an outside group should take charge of the library and shepherd its transition into a new organizational form was accepted.

[3] In 1899, the Patchogue chapter of Sorosis, a women’s suffrage organization, took control of the library collection, and moved it to their club building.

Carnegie reluctantly agreed to provide the funds, as long as the approved maintenance cost, to be paid by the village, could be raised as well.

On Tuesday, August 4, 1908, the school board approved an additional $500 in maintenance costs a year for the library, raising the total annual support provided the village to $1,500.

H. Allen Tenney, Library Building and Committee Chairman, and George D. Gerard, Head of the Board of Education, along with a number of other guests, spoke on the occasion.

In 1993, the Neighborhood Center was opened at the Eagle Elementary School, which provides a quiet study place and a large collection of adult and children's fiction to service to the residents of Medford.

In 2000, the library celebrated its first 100 years under state charter, a fact noted in a commemorative article in the New York Times.

She served as its first president, and launched state and countywide library conferences held in Patchogue, which supported local businesses.

In the Great Depression and road to World War II, the library featured business, self-help, and job-related books and works on the growing crisis in international affairs.

Today the renovation is complete as the Carnegie Library has been moved to its permanent location next to the Suffolk County 6th District Court on Main Street.