Concord, MA, Public Library

It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Also, to be sure, Henry David Thoreau, Walden Pond, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Orestes Augustus Brownson, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Bronson Alcott, George Ripley, and all that.

For a town so rich in history, their web presence is pretty blah. The library page provides nothing but immediately usable data- although that may change as they are getting ready to have a 125th anniversary.

Having said that, it must be admitted that the Report is silent on the topic of the building below.

Leslie Perrin Wilson, currently Curator of Special Collections at Concord PL forwarded a considerable amount of information- from which I have drawn the following:

The building was designed by Boston architects Snell and Gregerson. Benefactor William Munroe provided the funds to erect the Library and made all the necessary arrangements. The dedication ceremonies were held on October 1, 1873. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the keynote speaker.

The building has undergone a number of renovations and expansions over the years. The most significant was that of 1933 when architect Harry Britton Little ... transformed the exterior from Victorian Gothic to Georgian.... The original 1873 building, although significantly altered, was not taken down. In fact, from the interior the present octagonal lobby looks essentially as it did 125 years ago.

Ms. Wilson sent along a copy of the 1873 dedication, which includes a photograph of the original building. She also sent a copy of a picture of the building after the 1933 renovation. Had I not read the paragraph above I would never have guessed them to be the same building. After a while you can see the octagonal portion of the original building included in the 1933 version, but it is not immediately obvious.

The American Memory image is from around 1910.

As of 1876 the library in question held 10,061 volumes, and had an annual circulation of 33,000, yielding a turnover rate of 3.28, a respectable figure even by todays standards.

Concord Public Library 1873-today