Welcome to Westmoreland Public Library

Library Closed Due to COVID-19

Due to the current NH State of Emergency directives regarding COVID-19, the Westmoreland Public Library has decided to close and suspend all library services. This closure will remain in place through 5/5/2020, when we will reassess the situation. 

Wifi is still available outside in the parking lot.

Please keep all library materials at home until the library is open again. 

Stay at home and stay healthy.

TOWN WIDE READ - POSTPONED UNTIL LATER DATE

Join your friends and neighbors and read the same book at the same time, then come discuss it!
 

 
We will be reading "Waking Up White" by Debby Irving.
The book discussion will be at the Westmoreland Public Library.

The library will provide copies of the book.
Please let us know if you need a copy by March 17th to ensure we have enough.
To order or for more information, call 399-7750.

Everyone is welcome!

Please check back here for new information

 

 

A Brief History of the Library

Early records show the first libraries in Westmoreland were subscription libraries maintained in the private homes of W. J. Reed on Park Hill and Deacon Jon Cowdery in South Village.

In 1876, Willard Bill, Jr. and Reverend Charles N. Flanders took the first step to provide the Town of Westmoreland with a public library. They raised an initial sum of $116 by hosting a lecture series. The following year, a library association was formed which voted to formally gift these and all other raised monies to the town for the purpose of organizing a free library. The town voted to accept the gift at its town meeting in 1888. The books previously held in the private libraries were then placed in various homes throughout the town and freely exchanged.

Almost twenty years later, in 1903, Mary Ruland, wife of the local minister, catalogued 2,955 books and the town voted to provide a suitable place to hold all of these books. The No. 3 schoolhouse in South Village which had closed three years before was chosen as the preferred site. Under the direction of Willard Bill, renovations soon began on the old brick schoolhouse which had been built in 1830. The first librarians were Misses Mary and Carrie Warren.

In 1905, the old school reopened as a public library with a new brick façade and a tower on each front corner in tribute to the two men who had been the visionaries so many years before.

In 2001, the town celebrated the addition of the Children's Room.

 

Next Library Board of Trustees Meeting:
TBD

 

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Next Book Group meeting is postponed.
See Book Group page for more details.