The New Library is long overdue!
When the Whipple Free Library opened its doors in 1927, “Silent” Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States. It was the era of prohibition, speakeasies, and the Charleston; flapper dresses and spit curls for the ladies; knickers and argyle socks for the gents. The popular songs of the day were Varsity Drag, Sweetheart of Sigma Chi, My Blue Heaven, and Sophie Tucker’s memorable 50 Million Frenchmen Can’t be Wrong. It was the year of the first talking movie, Al Jolson’s “The Jazz Singer,” the last year of production of the Tin Lizzie, the Model T Ford, and Charles Lindbergh’s non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic.
Meanwhile, folks here in New Boston were celebrating the move of their Library to its new home in the Wason Building in Central Square. At the time, the town was a small, rural farming community of fewer than 700 residents. Electricity had not yet come to all the homes, and the horse-drawn wagon was still a primary mode of transportation. Eighty years ago, in a period of hand-cranked telephones and wind-up Victrolas, the variety of programs and services, books, videos, compact disks, and technological offerings of a modern library weren’t even imagined!
Clearly, times have changed dramatically during the past eight decades – around the world, across the nation, and right here in New Boston. Our population is now more than seven times larger! Global communications and technological advances have created an ever-increasing demand for new knowledge and ways to obtain it.
Meanwhile, folks here in New Boston were celebrating the move of their Library to its new home in the Wason Building in Central Square. At the time, the town was a small, rural farming community of fewer than 700 residents. Electricity had not yet come to all the homes, and the horse-drawn wagon was still a primary mode of transportation. Eighty years ago, in a period of hand-cranked telephones and wind-up Victrolas, the variety of programs and services, books, videos, compact disks, and technological offerings of a modern library weren’t even imagined!
Clearly, times have changed dramatically during the past eight decades – around the world, across the nation, and right here in New Boston. Our population is now more than seven times larger! Global communications and technological advances have created an ever-increasing demand for new knowledge and ways to obtain it.
And yet our town Library is still housed in the same building -- too small and outdated to meet the requirements of a modern Library.
Click on this book to learn more about why New Boston needs a new Library.