The village of Somesville, the first settlement on Mount Desert Island (1761), was once a vibrant economic center. By 1836, it had “one small store, one blacksmith shop, one shoemaker’s shop, one tan-yard, two shipyards, one bark mill, one saw mill, one lath mill, one shingle mill, one grist mill, and one school house…” Civic organizations, including the Somesville Library, flourished in this community. In 1884, a group of twelve local women formed the Ladies Aid Association, with the goal of gathering books and other reading materials for the use of Somesville residents. They raised a small amount of money to buy books that were kept in their homes, and exchanged the reading material with other participating residents.

 

After a few years, the Ladies Aid Association re-organized itself as the New Library Society, aiming to erect a building that could house the collection. “A Reading Room shall be part of the Library building, so people can sit and read what they do not want to take home.”

 

Two small parcels of land in the middle of Somesville, overlooking the harbor and cove, were combined on the site where Nathaniel Richardson had earlier built his schooner The Siren. Shipbuilding was a leading industry in Somesville from its founding until the 1930s. The owners of the land, George and Thaddeus Somes, charged a dollar a year in rent, a sum they returned to the library as an annual gift.

 

In 1891, the New Library Society began fundraising in earnest, holding baked-bean suppers, auctions, candy sales, pie sociables, dances, plays, and other community entertainments, each of which brought in a few dollars. Library records show that construction began in 1895 and was completed the following year. John R. Somes received $200 for lumber, tarred paper cost an additional $0.90, and a padlock cost a further $0.25. Paid labor came to $228.37. The total cost of the library building was $457.94.

 

The Mount Desert Library Society was incorporated by the State of Maine in 1905, and has evolved into the present-day Somesville Library Association.

 

In 1974, the pot-bellied stove was no longer considered adequate, so a building addition that could accommodate a furnace was built onto the back of the modest structure. At the same time, a small music room was added to the North side of the building, later transformed into a children’s room in memory of Jane Weinberger. 

 

There have been 15 female and two male librarians in the history of the organization, with tenures from six months to 25 years. In 1892, the first librarian, Emma Kenniston, received $15 a year for her services.

 

Since its founding, the Somesville Library, one of five private libraries on Mount Desert Island, has consistently made available current adult books, classics, children’s books, biographies, non-fiction, and books by Maine authors or about Maine — freely and at no cost to visitors.

 

The library is a source of delight for patrons year round. Behind the small building are a dam and a fish ladder, part of a complex constellation of ponds, streams, and fishways begun by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early 1940s. These fish ladders enable a significant population of alewives (an anadromous herring about 10” long) to migrate upstream from salt to fresh water, in order to spawn.

 

As Laura Richardson wrote about the Somesville library some 125 years ago, “Let us all feel thankful, yes, proud of this little building set in our midst, and may it help us to become better and nobler men and women.”

—This article was written by Tom Lange, who served a 22-year tenure (2000–2022) as Somesville's librarian.

 

Sources:

Hansen, Gunnar, ed. Mount Desert; an informal history. 1989

Leland, Nelson. [Remarks on the history of the Somesville Library, 1974]

Sanderson, Virginal Somes. The living past, being the story of Somesville… 1982

Thornton, Mrs. Seth. Traditions and record of Southwest Harbor and Somesville. 1938

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