Center Meeting House

Tucked away to the right of the Center Meeting House pulpit is a notable collection of about 100 books that contain moral, ethical and religious teachings of the nineteenth century and served both children and adults. Chuck Kennedy tells us that this collection comprised the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School’s Lending Library.

Without free libraries, books were unavailable to most people during this time. As the Center Meeting House served as the central gathering for town meetings and both religious and cultural events, each church purchased books for the collection, which their parishioners could borrow.

Inside each book, a small white sticker denotes the book’s ID number and library rules, which state that only members of the Sunday School were allowed to take books from the Library, no member was allowed to take more than one book at once, no book must be kept out of the library more than two weeks, and no member of the School was allowed to go into the Library except the Librarian and assistants.

These books tell stories of travels to far-off lands and simple tales of fact and fiction. What was written more than 100 years ago still has meaning in our lives today. The Center Meeting House and the Lending Library tell us about men, women and children who struggled to create a community in an extremely challenging environment. In 1832 they took on the challenge of building a Meeting House even as they eked out an existence on this rocky land.

Our efforts call for cataloging this small but important collection of books, and determining how best to house and display the collection. If you’d like more information, please contact Chuck Kennedy at P.O. Box 50, Newbury NH, 03255.