Northampton, MA Public Library
The present public library for Northampton is the Forbes library, opened in 1893. Here's the Forbes as it appeared in roughly 1910. No less a luminary than Charles Ammi Cutter was librarian from 1894-1903.
Allison Lockwood, a writer living in Northampton, provided the basis for the following information.
The building below, which you will notice is labeled "Memorial Hall," was build as a memorial to the 90 Northamptonians who died in the Civil War. The building is of red brick, and was opened for business as a library on March 30, 1874. Ms Lockwood notes that there were "seven years of planning, fundraising, and controversy," prior to the opening. The collection at the time of the Report was 10,474 volumes, which must have been close to the collection at opening day. The director was C.S. Laidley.
The principal donor was one John Clarke, and the building became unofficially known as the Clarke Library. In the 1880s the names of the 90 dead were inscribed on bronze plaques on the front of the building. In 1990 the town added 170 more names, the dead of the Spanish-American War, the two World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam.
The relationship of the Clarke and Forbes libraries is complex. Judge Forbes died in 1881, leaving the money which eventually built the Forbes library. Smith College President L. Clark Seelye claimed, in 1885, that Forbes had told him not to spend money on a library for Smith as they would be taken care of. There was some debate as to the location of the Forbes- close to campus, or downtown. In the meantime the Clarke family was somewhat less than amused at the notion of there being two public libraries in Northampton. It is evident from Ms Lookwood's book No Ordinary Man: Judge Forbes and His Library (1994) that both libraries were well endowed, so the financial drain on Northampton was at a minimum. The Clarke and Forbes were both "public libraries" until 1915 when the John Clarke's nephew, Christopher, died. Shortly thereafter the assets of the Clarke were transferred to the Forbes:
When the library was closed upon Clarke's death in 1915, all of the fixtures- including the books, loan desk and heavy oak bookshelves- were moved to the Forbes. The latter two items are seen today upstairs in the Art and Music Department, and occasionally- in a very old book- patrons come upon a worn and faded Northampton Public Library bookplate. (No Ordinary Man... page 63)
The building is still standing, and is known locally as Memorial Hall, unsurprising given the name over the door Here's a link to a circa 1907 photo of the building. The photo is from the Library of Congress American Memory collection.
