The Cumberland Library

(Photo Courtesy: Prince Memorial Library)

A history of The Cumberland Library! Prior to the opening of Prince Memorial Library in 1923, Olive Hall served as librarian for The Cumberland Library. The library's books were stored in her home at 283 Main Street. Olive, a widow, lived with her daughter and son-in-law Arno Chase in the two-family house.

As the library was largely organized and run by the women, the titles often reflected the interests of the women at the time, mostly fiction from the late 1800s and early 1900s, with no reference books or children's books at all. By 1921, the printed catalog included 675 titles, including biographies, histories, and novels.

Chase recalls two rooms of shelves filled with books, each with a number on the spine and in new condition with a paper cover, no matter how long it had been in the library.

Mildred Doane remembers "the smell of books and a kerosene lamp at Mrs. Hall's...It was a great event when we heard that new books were in."