Howe Library Reaches 50-Year Mark
ON APRIL 7, 1950, the Howe Library begins its second fifty years of service to the Hanover community. Chartered as a corporation by the legislature of New Hampshire in 1900, it owes its existence to the generosity of Emily Howe Hitchcock, who in that year turned over to this corporation her home on West Wheelock Street, to be used as a public library available to all permanent residents of the town of Hanover.
The building is a historic one. Its genesis began with a gift of the most sympathic and understanding of the English friends of Wheelock, John Thornton, who in 1773 provided most of the £250 sterling required for the erection on the present site of Reed Hall of a "mansion house. 46' x 36' of two stories and a gambrel roof," to be the home of the president. Here Eleazar Wheelock lived and died and so did his son and successor, John. It then became the property of John's son-in-law, President William Allen, of the University, who, upon his departure to become president of Bowdoin in 1820, rented it successively to President Tyler and President Lord. In 1838 it was bought by the trustees of the College for $3000 and the site used for the construction of Reed Hall. The house was sold to Otis Freeman for $525 and moved to its present site. It then passed into the hands of various owners, one of whom. A. P. Balch in 1847, radically changed its appearance by substituting a sharp A roof for the original gambrel roof. Later it became the home of Benjamin Howe, a bookbinder, who died in 1867. His widow, however, lived until 1897 with her one surviving daughter. Through inheritance the family became notably prosperous. In 1900 Emily Howe married Hiram Hitchcock and at this time gave the real estate to the corporation, as described above. It is the second oldest surviving house in Hanover.
The corporation at this time had no other endowment and no books. However, the rental of rooms on the upper floors to instructors in the College (a practice that has continued to the present day) brought in an income of some $1200. Books, also, were accumulated from various sources, mostly from gifts, so that by May the number was 1300. By 1912 it had risen to 3400. During these twelve years, even with very limited resources, the library served a useful purpose.
fn 1912 Mrs. Hitchcock died and the library became her residuary legatee, so that, by the settlement of her estate in 1916, the endowment of the institution had increased to $150,000. Through the careful management of Mr. C. P. Chase, Mrs. Hitchcock's executor and close personal friend, president of the corporation and of the trustees until his death in 1923, this endowment was steadily increased by appropriation from income until in 1931 it amounted to over $200,000. As in all cases with invested funds, however, there was a material shrinkage in value and income during the depression of the thirties.
This large increase in resources in 1912enabled the library thenceforth to workwith real efficiency. A brick bookstack wasbuilt, in the rear of the house itself, in 1914 at an expense of $14,000. A trainedlibrarian was secured, with adequate assistants, and the purchase of books wascarried on on a much larger scale. Theinterior of the original building was reconstructed, a large reading room, together with an adequate children's room,was installed, both furnished in the besttaste of the period from which the houseitself dates. As a result, from that time onHanover was provided with a public library in size, equipment and capacity forservice superior to that of many towns ofthe state far larger in population; all thisat no expense to the inhabitants. In 1947,however, due to greatly increased costs inpractically all lines, the satisfactory operation of the institution could no longer beprovided from its endowment alone, andan appropriation was asked from thetown, which, in amounts varying from $2000 to $4000, it has since received eachyear.
In 1950 the library is operating upon a budget of $16,000. It employs a chief librarian and three assistants, one of whom devotes her full time to work with children. The number of books is now 21,562 and the circulation in 1949 was 59,189. The value of the building is $35,058 and the invested funds have a book valuation of $173,629. The institution has come to be recognized by all the inhabitants of Hanover and Norwich (to which its privileges are now extended) as one of the essential assets of the community.
ORIGINALLY THE HOME OF ELEAZAR WHEELOCK, the Howe Library building, now on West Wheelock Street, is the second oldest surviving house in Hanover. It first stood on the present site of Reed Hall.
