I sensed I would learn not just about the history of the library, but also about this village that I’d come to enjoy, with its bucolic setting on the Nantucket Sound, large swathes of protected land, and a village center that served all of our needs.
The Osterville Free Library, as it was known when founded in 1882, can actually be traced back to 1873 as the Osterville Literary Society, and the lending library was located in the converted dining room of the James Allan Lovell House, where Thankful Hamblin Ames lived and served as the first librarian. The library was to outgrow the small room in less than a decade, and was moved to the Dry Swamp Academy behind the Osterville Baptist Church.
In 1881 William Lloyd Garrison, Jr. solicited both year-round and summer residents to pledge money to build a new village library.
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