With A Rich History, Tiverton's Union Library Remains Open

The latest chapter in the history of Tiverton’s at Four Corners is one, according to Tiverton Library Director Ann Grealish-Rust, that may have members of the Union Library Association “dancing with joy.”  

The library trustees have agreed to keep the historic library open even after construction of the proposed $11.6 million library facility at Bliss Four Corners is completed. The library, which is the second oldest in the state (Redwood Library in Newport is the oldest) will continue to operate as a branch library in the building officially owned by the association and rented to the town for one dollar a year.

“They are quite attached to it,” noted Grealish-Rust, a Bristol native, who was hired to her current post a little over a year ago.

Although moving Tiverton into a new library facility that showcases “all that a library can be” as her focus, Grealish-Rust clearly admires the dedication felt by the association and their commitment to keep the unimposing little building encased with weathered shingles open to both year round and summer residents.

The association maintains the building, and as their President Barbara Martin notes, “Things crop up in an old building, so in the past three years major work has been done.” 

According to Martin, about $10,000 worth of repairs have been completed in the three years since she has become president. The work includes replacement of metal supports due to sagging floors, new insulation, wood joist replacements along the foundation, replacement of the electric service box, new gutters and tree pruning. New shingles at the rear of the building also needed to be replaced after the last round of structural repairs were completed. 

Funds from the association’s annual book sale has been the sole fundraising vehicle in the past, but according to Martin, additional fundraising may be needed in the future. 

“We keep doing a little bit at a time because this library is all about the community," she said.

Martin adds that, “When you come here, it’s like a little party. It started as a congregating place, and it still is.”

A Rich History

One can only imagine how many memories are held in the walls of the Union Public Library, originally established in 1820 as the Union Society and housed in the old Seabury Store (now the site of ). The library was formed as more of a social group than a place to borrow reading material. Founded by a group of men who developed a constitution, clarifying that “only fair and honorable company” could be members, there were other rules that applied to the newly formed lending library of the Union Society. 

Novels were forbidden during the earliest years, and the only circulating books were biographies, histories, and theological and philosophical texts, according to the Patchwork History of Tiverton, Rhode Island, 1976 Bicentennial Edition. 

After several other moves, and a new constitution passed in 1888 which made the library free for all, the library eventually made its final move into the current building. Originally a Good Templars Hall, the Templars rented the building to the association until 1914 when the building was officially sold to the Union Public Library for $1.

Since then, the building was moved back from the road and the children’s room was added. The original balcony had to be removed, and all books now are kept on one floor. The wood stove which once heated the building is long gone, but the chimney remains. Heavy glass light fixtures hang from the ceilings, and the wooden floors creak slightly with each footstep. From the shelves, books peer out as if to assert themselves in the brave new multi-media world.

It is good, perhaps, for some things to stay the same.