Ashland Public Library
The Early Years
Having a centralized location for literature, publications and research material is vital to any community and Ashland is no exception. Dating back to the early 19th century, various people in town would provide lending libraries of their own private collections to others in the community. It wasn’t until 1859 that any structured entity existed. Using privately donated funds, the Agricultural Library was created. A free institution, the library grew to eventually contain 125 volumes. Not a bad start, but unfortunately they didn’t have library cards back then because according to “History of the Town of Ashland”:
“The Agricultural Library finally succumbed because of over-popularity, disappearing simultaneously with its last unreturned volume.”
So the library went by way of the dinosaur, but not for too long. The first attempts to re-establish a library was in 1880 when an article was inserted in the warrant for the April town meeting. At that meeting it was voted to create and maintain a public library. The library committee consisted of Adrian Foote as Chairman and G.T. Higley as Secretary. Their immediate goal was to raise funds to purchase books.
Later, in November of that year, town officials, pastors of the two churches, and other townsfolk met with the newly established committee. The decision was made to run various functions or “entertainments” as they were called, to raise funds for the library. The first function was a well attended presentation by the Congregational Society. The second was provided by the Sons of Temperance and was equally successful. The third was a lecture sponsored by the Methodist Church. Though not as popular as the first two, it still faired well.
Getting off to a pretty good start, two more events were subsequently scheduled. The Ashland Dramatic Club presented a play, and a turkey supper was held filling the hall to capacity. The net proceeds of all these events were $250.00, and with collections of monies from Ashland residents and others from surrounding communities, the total raised for the library was an impressive $900.00.
At town meeting in the spring of 1881, the library committee was re-elected and the name changed to Trustees of the Library. Space for the library was also created in the east anteroom of the town hall. Working quickly with the funds at hand, the trustees purchased 750 volumes, and again, according to “The History of the Town of Ashland”:
“No pains were spared to make the selection worthy and to keep out all objectionable books.”
Not having a clear definition of “objectionable” I’m curious about the selection criteria, but this was 1881. Moving on, a librarian was hired, and the library was open for business on April 9th, 1881. Growing quickly, it expanded to 1600 volumes by 1885.
The library flourished, and it soon became apparent that they would need a free standing structure of their own. In 1895, a provision in the will of Lucy A. Stone made funds available for the creation of a new building. The Town didn’t move on the offer immediately though creating a problem further down the road. In 1903, the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie offered to give the town $10,000 for a library provided that the building site was donated, and the town would fund at least $1000.00 a year to support it.
A new 15 person committee was created to study the Carnegie offer. On April 13th, 1903 the town agreed with the recommendations of the committee to accept the Carnegie offer. A building committee was then created and soon thereafter read a letter from Mr. Abner Greenwood offering a parcel on Front Street for the new building. The town quickly accepted Mr. Greenwood’s offer, and all the pieces were now in place.
Here is where a bit of a problem began. The town was looking to add the monies from the Lucy A. Stone fund to the Carnegie offer. The trustees of the fund felt that court action would be required to determine if any of the monies could now be used for the building. Adding another twist to the story, The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals also owned an interest in the Stone estate and was looking for the money, threatened legal action if the funds were approved for library use. To my knowledge, Ashland never saw a dime from the fund.
Not having the additional cash from the Stone estate the building was erected with Carnegie funds. It was built in the same fashion of brick and stone that was used in other Carnegie libraries across the country. Due to recent renovations and additions to the building the library is considerably larger than the original structure, but the basic architecture was followed throughout.
Today, with a collection size in excess of 32985 volumes, electronic media accessibility, and continuous public programs, the Ashland Public Library has come a long way in 150 years.
Steve Leacu - Ashland DIrections