Melrose Public Library

We congratulate the Melrose Public Library on receiving an $8 million grant from the state to renovate and expand its historic building. It is a fitting gift for an institution that this year is celebrating 150 years of service to the people of Melrose.

The library was incorporated on March 27th, 1871 by a vote of the town meeting. It soon secured a permanent collection through the gifts and fundraising of Melrose’s people, a steady revenue stream through the institution of a Dog Tax, and a capable administrator in librarian Carrie L. Worthen, who would serve in that post for a half-century, retiring at age 78 in 1922.

What it lacked for the first thirty-odd years of its existence was a dedicated building. It was initially housed in the back of an office in the Waverly Building rented by one of the town selectmen. When the Town Hall was completed in 1874, the library moved into a room there. In 1895 the library moved again, to the new YMCA building, where it finally was granted enough space to have a reading room.

In 1901, Mayor John Larrabee wrote to Andrew Carnegie, imploring him to include Melrose in his public library construction program. Carnegie wrote back to offer $25,000 to build a new library, on the condition that Melrose budget at least $2,500 per annum for the library in perpetuity.

The city accepted the gift, and after much debate, settled on its present location. Lynn architect Penn Varney was selected to design the new library, largely on the strength of his design of the Schenectady, New York, public library, which you can see bears more than a passing resemblance to the building he would create for Melrose.

Ground was broken on April 20, 1903, and the building was dedicated on April 16th of the following year, with Mary Livermore serving as keynote speaker. The new library was not just a repository for books, but was also a place for quiet study, a meeting space, an art gallery, and a community center—uses which the library has included in its current renovation plans.

We wish the library and its staff all the best in this latest historic transition, and look forward to seeing what the next 150 years will bring.