Bringing the Community Together
The Effingham Public Library is located centrally in the rural town of Effingham, New Hampshire. We are a community center with books; offering free library cards, programming and social activities to all!
MISSION STATEMENT
It is the mission of the Effingham Public Library to provide a center for the community that promotes education, leisure and creative pursuits by providing a means to access information and resources.
LIBRARY TRUSTEES
Grace Fuller, Chair (2025)
Steve Regal, Member (2025)
Erik Jones, Member (2027)
Jennifer Van Cor, Secretary (2026)
Nichole Perrault, Treasurer (2026)
Harriett Greystone, Alternate (2025)
LIBRARY STAFF
Sara Newell, Library Director
Betsy Lamontagne, Assistant Director
Library Hours
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 10 – 2
Wednesday: 10 – 2
Thursday: 10–6
Friday: Closed
Saturday: 9–12
History of the EPL
Book sharing goes back hundreds of years in Effingham! In the earliest days, people would pass around the few books and newspapers they could get their hands on. In the early 1800s, the residents of Lord’s Hill pooled their resources and started a community lending library. Books were borrowed for the season and were due back on the first Monday of March, June, September, and December.
The Effingham Library is Born
At the 1893 town meeting, the town of Effingham voted to establish an official town library and $30 (the equivalent of over $1020 today) was raised to get it started. The recitation room of the Charitable Masonic Institute was papered and painted, fitted with shelves, and the EPL was born.
Dr. Albert Gould served as our town’s very first librarian. He would serve for 23 years until he passed away in 1916. The EPL’s first board of trustees consisted of twelve members: John Demeritt, R.Fulton, John Drake, James Leavitt, John Glidden, James Champion, J.Marston, O.Avery, Josephus Drake, Cyrus Keay, Charles Miles, and Francisco Barker. By 1896, the EPL had a catalog of 761 items.
Source: “Tales of Effingham” by Lawrence P. Hall, Freedom Press Associates, 1988.
The Town Hall-Library Building
The Effingham Public Library has been in the same location since its inception in 1893!
Effingham can boast several buildings which are listed in both the state and national historic registries. One of these structures is the 1858 New England Masonic Charitable Institute-Town Hall-Library Building located within the Center Effingham Historic District. The Masonic Charitable Institute appears to have been a unique venture, with no similar academies ever having existed anywhere else in the United States. The Masonic School was established to educate orphans of Masonic members, but it also admitted local students. Classes were conducted from 1861 to roughly 1882 with students boarding with local families.
Those visiting the Library should look for the arched opening at the Circulation Desk. This proscenium opening was the stage for students’ performances. Look down to see the outline of the stage, with wood inset from the original flooring.
An impressive and imposing building, it is dominated by a six-story bell tower supported by an octagonal cupola. The building is of post and beam construction, five by three bays with a single-bay gable entrance hall, supported on individual granite posts with a crawl space under the structure. The building design has many architectural details characteristic of the Italianate style, including corner quoins, paired eave brackets, denticulated cornices and an elaborately ornamented belfry. The two-and-one-half-story structure measures 2,535 square feet with an attic story of approximately 1000 square feet.
The main Masonic Temple room on the second floor has masterfully painted trompe l’oeil frescoes painted in distemper paints on the flat plaster finishes to “fool the eye”. Local legend identifies the painter as a traveling itinerant farmhand, Philip A. Butler of Lawrence, Massachusetts, also a Mason. It is open to the public for viewing at selective times during the year.
In 1891, several years after the school closed, the semi-abandoned building was deeded to the town for $1.00 with the understanding that the Masons would have life-rights to the Temple room. From 1893 through July 2004, Effingham’s town offices were located on the first floor, sharing space with the public library. The town offices moved in 2004 allowing the library to expand. As of 2023, the EPL has been housed in this building for 130 years!