Daland Memorial Library

100 years ago, on August 4, 1909 at 3pm, the Daland Memorial Library opened its doors for the very first time. When Sophia Daland died in May of 1899 she left part of her estate for the construction and the endowment of a permanent library building for the town of Mont Vernon.  Mont Vernon actually had a library dating back to 1816 but it wandered for years from private homes, to the Grange Hall, to the McCollom Institue and everywhere between. In fact, it was moved 6 times just between 1892 and 1909! Debate raged for years on where to locate the building and finally in 1908, the Blood House was moved from the corner of Grand Hill Road and Route 13 (to Pinkham Road) to make room for a new building. Our lovely Arts and Crafts style building was designed by Cleveland & Godfrey of Boston. A formal dedication was held on August 19, 1909 in conjunction with the triennial reunion of Appleton Academy and McCollom Institute. Mr. George A. Bruce in his opening remarks made reference to the fact the the fifteen hundred books in the collection which had been “wandering homeless” finally had a home. A lengthy keynote address was given by The Honorable Albert E. Pillsbury. He opened his remarks saying that a public library was ” the most valuable possession of a town.” We could not agree more! Thank you, Sophia!