Thayer Memorial Library stands on Lancaster’s Town Green, but at her core is a much smaller footprint than that of the library’s current structure. At her heart is a footprint dating back to the immediate post-Civil War era (1868) – Memorial Hall: a combination Civil War memorial dedicated to Lancaster’s brave soldiers who sacrificed their lives during the War of the Rebellion; and Lancaster’s Public Library. This month, Lancaster and Thayer Memorial Library celebrate the original building’s 150th anniversary.
At Memorial Hall’s dedication on June 17, 1868, keynote speaker and Unitarian minister Reverend Christopher Toppan Thayer stated that Memorial Hall was built to fulfill two specific purposes for the town of Lancaster, “The first is to dedicate a suitable and grateful memorial of your brave fellow-citizens, who at their country’s call, and in the ardor of patriotic impulse, went forth from among you, life in hand, ready to peril life and all they held dear on earth, to do and die, and actually did lay down their own lives for the saving of that nation.” and as a public library for Lancaster’s citizens “… to enlighten, enlarge, fructify, and imbue with just, generous, and elevated sentiments and aspirations our own and others’ minds.” Such noble principles and lofty ideals placed high expectations upon this public building which had been erected on Lancaster’s Town Green. What was that all about?
Step back in time to after the Civil War had ended in May, 1865. Lancaster citizens began talking about erecting a monument to honor the town’s fallen soldiers. At Lancaster’s April 1866 Town Meeting, the decision was made to build such a memorial “… and that it should take the form of a building for the public use, with appropriate tablets and inscriptions upon its wall.” Lancaster appropriated $5,000 for a memorial hall. Such a building would also accommodate a library, furnish a fire-proof space for safe-keeping of the town’s records, provide additional areas for business meetings of town officers, and allow for natural history, manufacturing, and art displays.
On November 7, 1866, a committee of seven men was chosen to begin plans to erect Memorial Hall. The committee consisted of Nathaniel Thayer, George M. Bartol, Jacob Fisher, Henry Wilder, J.L.S. Thompson, Quincy Whitney and Dr. Edward M. Fuller. The First Church of Christ in Lancaster generously allowed the building to be built on part of its common land for which no compensation or rent has ever been paid or expected. The land chosen as the site for Memorial Hall could not be more appropriate since it was on the verge of a field used as a military muster ground for Lancaster soldiers – now Lancaster’s Town Green.
The total cost of the building was $30,000, of which two thirds was paid by Lancaster business man, banker, and financier Nathaniel Thayer. This money was in addition to Thayer’s original endowment of $5,000 for the purchase of books. Mr. Thayer’s instructions were, “… to make the memorial hall worthy of its object, and an ornament and blessing to the town.”
And so Memorial Hall was built. The names of Lancaster’s thirty-nine Civil War dead were inscribed on a marble tablet inside the rotunda. Reverend Christopher T. Thayer said at the dedication of the building, that their memories were kept “… away from the conflict and marring of the elements, apart from the disturbing or contaminating influences of the outer world, in the innermost shrine of the temple designed to commemorate their worth even as they are enshrined in the deepest recesses of our hearts.” Placing this marble memorial tablet alongside the book collection that was housed in Memorial Hall, would help keep the heroic dead ever in the minds of those who would visit the library. “Here they, for their worthy and glorious deeds, are placed side by side with, and share the immortality of, those who by their writings have been made, so far as on earth they could be, immortal.” The names of fallen war heroes were now inscribed alongside the printed names of published writers; Memorial Hall would impart a sense of immortality to both.
Memorial Hall was the first library building ever erected in Lancaster, even though the town’s history of having some type of library, no matter how small or how limited in circulation, dates back to the mid-1700s. Lancaster’s Memorial Hall was also the first of its kind of multi-purpose buildings designed and dedicated as a combination Civil War memorial/library. The next two memorial/library buildings designed in this unique style are known to be Andover Memorial Hall (1871-1873) and Northampton Free Public Library (1872-1874).
Memorial Hall has stood on Lancaster’s town green since 1868. Some of the original structure’s style, design, and original treasures remain visible throughout the building. The original marble tablet inscribed with the fallen soldiers’ names, was moved to the Reference Room during the latest renovation in the 1990s. The structural form and name may be different today, but the spirit of her original purpose can often be felt by visitors to Thayer Memorial Library today.
Concerning Lancaster’s library, perhaps early Lancaster minister, school committee member, and chairman of the Library Committee, George M. Bartol said it best in the March, 1865 School Committee report, “… no part of our public expenditure does or can, all things considered, bring back a richer return.”
Lancaster’s public library building has evolved and expanded over the past 150 years. It does have a different footprint today. But at her core, her heart remains the original Memorial Hall, that Civil War footprint on Lancaster’s Town Green.
Please stop by for a personal tour of this unique building that still stands on Lancaster’s Town Green as a memorial to Lancaster’s Civil War dead and Lancaster’s public town library.
For more information, phone Karen Silverthorn at 978-368-8928 ext. 4.
