Daily Hampshire Gazette 5/4/11

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

SHUTESBURY - It is the year of the anniversary in Shutesbury.

This Saturday will mark the 200th anniversary of the founding of the town's first library and also happens to fall on the day of annual Town Meeting, which will be held at Shutesbury Elementary School. The meeting begins at 9 a.m.

Shutesbury is also celebrating its founding as a town this year. The town, incorporated in 1761, is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year. The town's elected representatives, state Rep. Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, and state Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, will be at Town Meeting to acknowledge that anniversary Saturday.

But much of the celebratory glow also promises to belong to the library, which was founded by 40 residents who each contributed a dollar toward its creation on May 7, 1811.

"They had a little jelly cupboard [filled with books] that traveled from home to home, from which people could borrow," said Mary Ann Antonellis, Shutesbury library director. "They called it the 'Social Library.'"

Eleanor Stratton of Connecticut, the great-great granddaughter of Benjamin Davis, one of the library's founding members will also be at Town Meeting to mark the occasion. The historical record goes dark on the Shutesbury library for much of what was left of the 19th century. Then in 1894, town records show that residents voted to form a board of library trustees and to seek $100 from the state to help establish a free public library, Antonellis said.

In 1900, Mirick N. Spear, bequeathed the town $1,500 to build a free public library. M.N Spear Library was completed in 1902.

This year town officials are seeking a $2.1 million state grant that would help the town construct a 5,800 square feet facility, considerably bigger than the 900 square foot Spear building. The project's total cost is $3.4 million. Shutesbury expects to hear back from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners about the state grant in July, Antonellis said. The new building would be built on town property on Leverett Road.