Then and Now: Wilmington Memorial Library

The land where the  stands was once the site of the .

In about 1818 the Mission of Augustinian Priests set up a church at this site, 175 Middlesex Avenue. In 1919, His Eminence William Cardinal O'Connell set up the parish as a seperate entity and appointed Rev. Richard A. Boland to lead the parish, which became St. Thomas of Villanova parish. But the priests and Boland needed a place to live, so the church bought up land at the once Thomas D. Bond estate and built their rectory. This location, at 126 Middlesex Avenue, is where the St. Thomas Rectory still stands today.

Villanova Hal was built next to the rectory and when Wilmington's population boomed, after WWII, the hall was turned into the church, around 1949. At around the same time a fire blazed through the interior of the original church and though it was rebuilt, it was deemed too small for the parish size by 1960.

The library first started in the Civil War era with about five dozen books and before 1870 was essentially a collection of small libraries within the Wilmington schools. In 1871, the libraries were moved to be in one spot–in one of the rear rooms at the current . In 1890, it moved to occupy the old Centre Schoolhouse and though improvements were made to the building, it stayed there for 77 years. In 1967 the town held a special town meeting and was finally able to buy the land were the Villanova church once stood for the library. The library opened its doors on May 12, 1968 where it stands now.

*Historical information on the St. Thomas of Villanova Church and the Wilmington Memorial Library were pulled from the book 250th Anniversary Wilmington, Massachusetts 1730-1980, compiled and edited by Adele C. Passmore