Reading into Northville's Library History

This week marks National Library Week, and there is no better time to patronize the and to share its rich and storied history. Dating back more than 120 years, it is one of our community’s longest sustaining institutions. 

To give the library’s story its full due, I'm offering it in two parts. This week’s focus is on the library’s founding and its early years. The April 25 Past Tense will focus on the 20^th century to the present.

The first attempt at creating a library in the Village of Northville occurred in 1888, under the auspices of the YMCA. The organization operated a free reading room for the young men of Northville with books donated by citizens of the community.  In the same year, the Northville Circulating Library Association was formed with 100 books in its fledgling collection.

By the following year, neither the reading room nor the circulating library association remained. Nevertheless, in 1889, a call went out to form a library in the village.

In his book, Northville . . . The First Hundred Years, author Jack Hoffman noted that “by joint resolution of the ‘different church societies’ of the community, Miss Mary Lapham was named chairman of the library committee . . .” The committee was composed of a dozen Northville women and formed the basis of what would become the Ladies’ Library Association.

Despite the all-female composition of the library association, the library was viewed as a place primarily for young men and boys. As noted in an October 1889 article in The Northville Record, “A public library with a reading room open to the public afternoons and evenings would do as much good as anything added to this place. A room that can be made attractive to the young men and boys where they will spend their time instead of at questionable resorts.”

Anne Mannisto, assistant director of the Northville District Library, speculated it was probably more than coincidence that the first library was designed as a reading room for young men. She explained that at that time the women’s temperance movement was a formidable entity in the community, and Northville at the turn of the 19^th century had its fair share of bars and pool halls.

The Ladies’ Library Association was incorporated in 1889 with Mary Lapham selected to serve as its chairperson. Lapham, a daughter of privilege who worked in her father’s bank on Main Street, would donate the first 250 books to the library — the nucleus of its collection — and eventually deed its future building to the Ladies’ Library Association. An active member and president of the Northville Woman’s Club and a Northville School Board trustee, Lapham distinguished herself as a bulwark in the community. Her story deserves its own telling in a future Past Tense column.

The library opened in January 1890 on the second floor of what was then known as the McKeand building at 168 E. Main St. The building was later known as the Macomber Building and still later as the Sheehan Building. The Daskal Building that houses now occupies the site.

The former McKeand building was built sometime between 1830 and 1850 and was believed to be the last wooden frame-constructed building in downtown Northville when it was dismantled in 2007 by the Northville Historical Society and reassembled at . It is now the J.M. Mead General Store.

The library originally charged a subscription of $1 per year to borrow books. The fee was later lowered to 50-cents per year. The first librarian was Jennie Babbitt, and the library was open three afternoons a week. It did not take long before the library became a focal point in the community. The Northville Record noted in an article on February 11, 1892, that “after but two years of existence, with a membership of over two hundred and circulation of about a hundred and fifteen weekly, there should be no doubt of an increased participation, on the part of our citizens . . .”

As a result of its growing collection and patronage, the library remained in the McKeand building for only a few years before moving to the former church of the Presbyterian “new schoolers” on South Wing Street. Built in 1845, the New School Church was only used four years before its members rejoined the main Presbyterian church. The building was used in subsequent years as a school, YMCA and Salvation Army barracks.

The New School Church faced west on South Wing Street on the site now occupied by the Northville Square mall. It stood across the street from what was then the stately Lapham mansion and homestead that occupied the current Northville City Hall site. Whether Mary Lapham purchased or inherited the small New School Church is uncertain. Nevertheless, by the early to mid 1890s, the library had moved to the church site, where it would remain for 70 years.

Following her father’s death, Mary Lapham left Northville to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a doctor. In 1899, she deeded the library to the Ladies’ Library Association with the condition that the Northville Woman’s Club be permitted use of the building indefinitely. That same year, the library building was renovated, and in 1904 the Ladies’ Library Association officially named the building the Mary E. Lapham Library. It would remain the village library until 1964.

Part II: The library becomes a “free” public institution, Wayne County takes the reins, multiple site changes keep the library on wheels, and the community supports a building bond and dedicated millage for district library status.