PORTSMOUTH — Portsmouth was a very different place in early 1897. 

Fewer than 2,000 people lived in the rural, farm-based community. Its dirt streets were oiled in the summer to keep the dust down, and there was no form of public transportation on the island.

There was also no library, although that quickly would change.

As Town Historian Jim Garman recounted during a photo lecture last week to celebrate the 125th anniversary of The Portsmouth Free Public Library, some congregants of a nearby church were the spark that made it all happen.

J. Sturgis Pearce, the minister of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church from 1886 to 1911, had started up a Thursday Evening Club, where members met to talk about literature and the arts. After a while, however, they ran out of books to talk about, and there was no bookstore in the area.

At the Feb. 22, 1897 meeting, Pearce stunned club members by suggesting they build a public library where they could meet. Despite concerns over cost, Pearce persisted. Without a library, he said, the club would have to be abolished because it had become too unmanageable due to its popularity.

And so, a public meeting on March 18, 1897 — exactly 125 years after Garman’s lecture last Thursday — the Portsmouth Free Public Library Association was established. Thirty-five people joined, with dues set at $1 a year. (They didn’t all pay, Garman dryly noted.)

From dues and donations, library subscriptions totaled $218 “and they thought they were sitting fat,” Garman said. Donated books were accumulated at Town Hall while members looked for a location to build the library. 

John L. Borden, a wealthy farmer who lived on East Main Road and was one of the library board’s trustees, offered a piece of land at “Cozy Corner,” where East Main Road now meets Turnpike Avenue. 

Other donors followed Borden’s lead and “the library was on its way,” Garman said. Construction was completed in December 1898 at a cost of $2,363 — slightly over the original cost estimate.

Borden, a major donor along with his wife, Ruth, was an interesting character. 

“His will was 55 pages long. He accumulated a lot of property and lot of wealth, but he lived rather frugally,” Garman said. Borden continued to contribute to the library for the next 40 years and left a trust fund of $50,000 to the association when he died in 1933.

Grows by leaps and bounds

By 1899, the library had become the town’s major cultural center, said Garman, himself a former trustee along with his late wife, Dottie. Tennis courts were even laid out on the south part of the library’s lawn.

 “They got in trouble because the buildings and grounds committee didn’t maintain them very well,” he said.

The building at first was open just six days a week on Thursday and Saturday, but demand went up after the Newport to Fall River Street Railway was built on East Main Road in 1898, and then the Newport and Providence line along West Main Road — it came inland to Freeborn Street near the library — arrived in 1904. (Bus service replaced the trolleys in 1925.)

The library was always crunched for space, so additions were made in 1920, 1931, 1965, 1974, 1990-91 and 2000-01. Along the way, the library added book clubs, children’s and teen programming, wine and cheese fund-raisers, book sales and a lot more. 

During much of that time, Rosemary Finneran saw it all. She was hired as librarian in 1966 and served for 41 years before her retirement in 2007. Michael Mello, who was at last week’s event, has been the board of trustee’s president since 1981.

The popular Taste of Portsmouth fund-raiser, which featured food from local vendors and businesses, began in 1999. Carolyn Magnus, library director, said the COVID-19 pandemic put the event on hold, but she’s confident the tradition will return soon.

In many ways, The Portsmouth Free Public Library is still the cultural center of town, Garman said.

“It’s come a long way from the Thursday Evening Club back in 1897,” he said.

Before Garman’s lecture, Town Council Vice President Linda Ujifusa read a town proclamation in honor of the library’s birthday, and State Reps. Terri Cortvriend and Michelle McGaw presented a General Assembly citation recognizing the anniversary.

Mr. Garman will repeat his lecture at the library on Saturday, March 26, at noon. Call the library (401/683-9457) to register for a spot.