For just over 100 years this impressive building has stood on the corner of Mortland Road and Union Street in Searsport. At a special Town Meeting held on October 8, 1908, the heirs of Captain George A. Carver proposed a gift to the town, a new public library, fulfilling a long held wish of Capt. Carver. The building, designed by McLain and Wright of Boston and built by H.C.Brown also of Boston, was to be built of brick and masonry “to be fitted with a heating system and electric lights.” The Italian marble and oak flooring and interior oak columns and book cases still stand as an indication of careful planning and the quality of the building. The exterior of field stones, brought from the Carver Farm on what is today Moose Point State Park, still exists. Moose Point was another gift of the Carver family to the people of Maine. Over the years an addition at the rear of the library added space and allowed for the basement to become a children’s area.
On October 13, 1910, the building was dedicated with a ceremony that took place at both the library and nearby at Union Hall. A copper box was filled with artifacts of the day and tied with a white satin ribbon by Capt. Carver’s daughter Elizabeth Carver Whittier. The box was placed “in the corner stone” of the now completed library building. One hundred years later in 2010, as the centennial of the library was to be celebrated, the search for the box began. After many discussions and several attempts, the box was located in the stone with the date engraved, at the right front corner of the building. The box with its contents rested in a hollow in the stone, though not easily. When recovered it was found that time and water had destroyed the box and most of its contents, however, one piece of the satin ribbon remained clearly visible. Elizabeth Carver Whittier herself lived to be 100 years old! The first librarian was Miss Mary McClure, and it is believed that she is probably the figure in this photograph.
Contributed by: Faith Garrold, Searsport Historian
Catalog Number LB2007.1.110114