Page 3 - DEC2024

December 2024
NEWFOUNDLAKELIFE.COM
Page 3
Community
long-desired space for educa- tional programs designed for all ages. It will serve to accom- modate community functions and be a place to exhibit many examples of artistic expression both by residents and visiting art- ists. This new facility and other renovations need funding. Local residents raised matching funds to pay for a Historic Building Assessment (a prerequisite for a much-needed $100,000 grant from the New Hampshire Preser- vation Alliance). As of this date, the library hopes to have secured that award. However, there are expenses beyond the grant funds. The Hebron Library is trying to raise an additional $70,000 to secure a generous matching gift from a private citizen.
The staff, trustees, and res- idents of Hebron are working to make their library more ac- cessible and resourceful. We wish them well as they seek to strengthen the bright light of their library, one little bastion, among many, of free enquiry and unfettered expression.
By William nieman
HEBRON – When Andrew Carnegie, “the patron saint of libraries,” allocated the funds to construct over two thousand of those book-filled edifices, he insisted that God’s command, “Let there be light,” be inscribed above all their entryways. For Carnegie, this quote from the Bible’s first book was an apt re- minder to all that knowledge was to be found within each library’s door and it was only the light of knowledge that would dispel the darkness of ignorance.
The little village of Hebron was not one of the steel magnate’s beneficiaries but its “founding fathers” were determined that the village residents would be an informed (enlightened) citizenry. As early as 1795, the desirability of a “bookery” was discussed at Hebron’s first town meeting. Within a few years, Hebron’s de- termination to have a “cultural and educational” resource led to the establishment of the “He- bron Social Library.” Edmund Shattuck served as its first librar-
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A Bright Light in Hebron
The architect’s rendering of the renovation at Hebron Town Library. Both buildings are listed on the National and State Register of Historic Places.
ian.
America’s early libraries tended to be “subscription” li- braries. This was true in He- bron. The initial use fee was somewhat steep for those days, $2.00. Shattuck was paid a sti- pend of twenty-five cents a year, and his home served as the li- brary. Accommodating the li- brary in private homes would be the rule for most of the 19th century. It was not until 1898 that Hebron’s growing collection of books would be housed in a public building, the Academy, a
building that graced the Village
renovation of the library. Recently, it was my pleasure Common. The Academy served
as the library until 1981. That
to meet with assistant librarian, year, the Grange Hall, across
Donna Luti, who identified the new library services that would from the northeast corner of the
Common, was renovated to serve
be available with the addition. as Hebron’s library.
She also shared details about the progress being made to acquire Today, the converted Grange
Hall is linked to a close-by “twin”
and/or raise the necessary finan- vernacular cottage through an
cial resources for the ambitious renovations.
enclosed vestibule. Previously, the
twin served first as a chapel and
The old Town Clerk’s office later as the Town Clerk’s office.
will provide space for needed reference stacks as well as a The current hope is to incorpo-
rate that building into the library
quiet reading room. Notably, as part of an enlargement and
the library, finally, will have a
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