BIDDEFORD — On one afternoon earlier this February, Kim Kimball was sitting at a quiet spot in the McArthur Public Library, taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi Internet connection and doing homework on her computer for an online college course she’s taking.
Marcel Viger, who is retired, was sitting in a comfy chair in the library’s Elizabeth Stevens Reading Room, perusing magazines as he does several times a week.
Young adults Lydia Barron and Michael Paige were just hanging out and visiting with one another, while Brian Hall was filling out paperwork on one of the public computers so he could get a new and better job.
And the four Robertson children, ages 7 to 14, along with their mother, were in the children’s room where they were reading and looking for books to check out and bring home.
These patrons are just some of the approximately 500 people who walk through the doors of the McArthur Library on an average day.
“The library is usually the busiest storefront in the city,” said Dean Wolfahrt, president of board of trustees of the McArthur Library Association, the private association responsible for maintaining the public library.
The McArthur, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, is used more today than ever, said Library Director Jeff Cabral.
Events and activities marking the 150th anniversary of the McArthur Library will take place throughout the year, he said.
”One hundred and fifty years of library service to the community,” he said, “is too important an occasion not to mark it.”
“Any organization that stays around, and is as vibrant as the McArthur is, deserves to be recognized,” agreed Wolfahrt.
Established in 1863 as a reading room and book loaning institution, the library has a long history of serving the community, said Cabral.
It’s “the center of the community,” he said. “The library is expected to have something for everybody.”
And, for the most part, it does.
For some, like Kimball and Viger, it provides a quiet work and/or reading space. Kimball started coming to the McArthur with her mother when she was 9.
“I used to read a lot of books,” she said. Now Kimball is a less frequent visitor, but when she needs a quiet place to concentrate she said the library fits the bill.
About 20 years ago, after he retired, Viger, a former attorney, said he became a regular visitor to the McArthur. He said he goes to the library about twice a week to read magazines.
“It’s a great place to come and sit,” he said. “It gets me out of the house.”
But not everyone is looking for quiet when they visit the library, and the McArthur has adapted over the years to the different needs and wishes of its members. Teenagers and young adults, like Barron and Paige, said they like to meet at the library and catch up with friends. They also use some of the McArthur’s 15 public use computers.
Patron Mark Daniel said he uses the library’s computers to listen to music on a Russian website. And Hall, in his job search, also makes use of the computers.
“It’s convenient to have the Internet,” said Hall. Plus, he said, he likes to use the library’s printer since he doesn’t have one at home.
The library also has a lot to offer for children.
Deanne Robertson and her four children are frequent visitors to the McArthur.
“I want to foster a love of reading,” said Robertson.
She said she started coming to the library with her oldest daughter Rachel, now 14, when the girl was just 1 year old. Now the children and mother like to borrow books from the library, and also “if they have projects, this is where we come,” said Robertson, who homeschools her children.
In addition to the myriad uses and services patrons are offered on a regular basis at the McArthur, every day there is at least one scheduled event. These could include story time for preschool children; hosting the teen manga and anime club, where teenagers make Japanese crafts and discuss anime series; Baby & Me; or special events including free concerts, lectures and talks with authors.
Today’s library is much different than the one started 150 years ago.
The McArthur, which is among the oldest tax-supported public libraries in Maine and New England, got its start as a reading room for mill workers of the York Mechanics’ Institute of Saco, said Cabral. The reading room and its collection was moved to the counting house of the Saco Water Machine Shop in Biddeford between 1855 and 1856.
The books were eventually donated to the city, which agreed to house and care for them. Then in October 1863, the Biddeford Public Library, located in City Hall, opened to the public.
When it first opened, the library was open to all city residents 16 or older and non-residents for a fee of $20. Members could take out only one book at a time, and only on Saturdays.
The same year the library was established, its current home, the Pavilion Congregational Church, was built. That building, at 270 Main St., was purchased by Robert McArthur, for whom the library is named. McArthur, a self-educated man who eventually worked his way up from bobbin boy to the position of agent of the Pepperell Mills, donated the building to the city for use as the library.
The move was concluded in 1902.
Other significant contributors to the establishment of the McArthur were former mill worker Elizabeth Stevens, who left her life savings of $3,500 to the library; and Estelle Tatterson, who is responsible for the children’s reading room.
McArthur, along with his daughters Jane Owen and Lena McArthur, also provided an endowment for the library, the income from which, along with $327,000 contributed by the city, pays for most of the institution’s $880,000 annual budget.
In the more recent past, maintenance of the building and several additions and changes have allowed the McArthur to continue to fulfill the needs of the community.
Vice President of the library association’s board Mike Eon has taken on much of that responsibility.
Since the early 20th century, two major additions and renovations took place, one in the 1960s and another in the 1990s, he said. In 2010, the latest renovation and creation of the Estelle Stevens reading room were completed.
With continued maintenance, said Eon, “I foresee (the McArthur Library) being there for generations to come.”
— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.
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