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The Loring N. Fowler Memorial Library

The plan suggested in our report last year for obtaining at once the library facilities provided for in the will of Mr. Fowler met with the unanimous approval of the Town at its 1929 annual meeting when votes were passed under articles eighteen and nineteen to sell to the Library the lot on the Northwest corner of Main and Church Streets for $2,500 and to “authorize the Selectmen to contract with the library to pay to it four per cent interest on the cost not exceeding $30,000 of a branch library building and of the price of the land in West Concord on which it is built, plus the expense of light, fuel, water and janitor service therefor, until the death of the survivor of the widow and daughter of the late Loring N. Fowler”.

The Act of the Legislature, chapter 78, authorizing such a contract was approved by the Governor March 1, 1929.

We employed Mr. Harry B. Little as our architect. He had been very helpful to us during the Summer of 1928 when we were considering plans.

We received the following bids for the general contract including a “Contingency Fund” of $3,000 on which we have drawn so far only $250: $34,149, $33,500, $32,863, and $30,750; for the heating work $3,284, $3,053 and $2,800; for the plumbing $1,597, $1,547 and $1,412; for the electrical work $925, $887 and $840; and for equipment $2,257.50 and $2,030.90.

In each instance the lowest bid was accepted, the lowest bidders being Sawyer Construction Company, Martin Coffey, Murdock McLeod and Library Bureau. This makes the probable ultimate cost including the land and the architect’s fee about $40,000. Mr. Little generously offered to make his fee 8% instead of the usual 10%.

Work was started October 14 and the progress has been remarkable. We hope to have the building ready for dedication in March.

The lot is 180 feet on Main Street by 115 feet on Church Street. The building of Harvard brick with wooden trimmings is centered on the lot. The main building is 58 feet by 30 feet 8 inches with an ell to the North 18 feet 10 inches by 23 feet 8 inches. The front door is on Main Street sheltered by a porch supported by four columns. It opens through a vestibule into a large reading room with book stacks. The Librarian’s room is in the ell. The basement has a boiler room, packing room and a storage room for books 31 feet 3 inches by 28 feet 8 inches. We feel that we have all the space that we shall need for this generation and the next generation can build a book stack to the North if such a stack becomes necessary.

We plan to charge to the bequest of Mr. Fowler the cost of the Memorial Library, the cost of maintaining it and also interest on such parts of our other funds as are used for it, figuring the interest at the rate fixed by us each year for the distribution of the income of those funds (which rate in 1928 and 1929 was 4 ¾ %) and to credit that bequest with the amounts received from the Town, so that, when the bequest is received by us, the balance will form a permanent fund for the purposes of the Memorial Library.

The Stow Street property devised to us under the will of Mrs. Anna M. Holland has been sold for $7,600. We have now received from the executor of her will our half of the residue of her estate, amounting to $25,084.70.

The Corporation expended for fuel, light and water in 1929:

We therefore recommend that the sum of $1,589.15 be appropriated and paid to the Corporation for the maintenance and care of the Library and its West Concord Branch during the year 1930.

WILLIAM WHEELER,

President

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