Prince Memorial Library

Description

Shows the land on northwest side of Main Street (Route 9) in Cumberland given by Maude Merrill Thomes to the Prince Memorial Library Corporation on February 6, 1922. The Prince Memorial Library Corporation was incorporated on November 7, 1921, after the wills of Carroll D. and Annie L. Prince left a bequest of $35,000 for the construction of a public library in Cumberland. Maude Merrill Thomes initially gave a 100 x 100 sq. ft. lot for the site of the library; a 1943 gift of 19,050 sq. ft. adjacent to the original parcel was made on August 10, 1943, by Maude Merrill in honor of her parents, Louville H. and Mary E. Merrill. The second gift originally came with the condition that it be used as a park or bird sanctuary and no public buildings, monuments or statuary be erected on it. This stipulation was removed in 1943.

The land was originally the site for the house built by Benjamin and Rufus Sweetser. Rufus Sweetser sold 3+/- acres to Captain David B. Wilson on May 17, 1858. Wilson added to the parcel when he purchased adjacent properties from Amasa S. Sweetser in 1862 and from Julia, Ellen and George Sweetser in 1888. Wilson bequeathed the land in 1892 to his granddaughters, Genevieve Norton Hutchins of Dixfield and Ernestine Norton of Cumberland. Hutchins and Norton transferred the land to Maude Thomes in 1913.

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