Bailey Island Library Hall (locally just Library Hall) is a historic community building at 2167 Harpswell Island Road, on Bailey Island in

Harpswell, Maine Harpswell is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, within Casco Bay in the Gulf of Maine. The population was 5,031 at the 2020 census. Harpswell is composed of land contiguous with the rest of Cumberland County, called Harpswell Ne ...

. Built in 1911–12, it has been a center of community life on the island since its construction, and is a notable architectural work of the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

architectural firm Mann & MacNeille. Originally built to house a lending library and social hall, it now only serves the latter function. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on December 31, 2008.

Description and history

Library Hall is located roughly in the center of Bailey Island, on the east side of Harpswell Island Road (

Maine State Route 24 State Route 24 (abbreviated SR 24) is part of Maine's system of numbered state highways, running from Bailey Island south of Orr's Island in Harpswell northward to Gardiner, passing through Brunswick along the way. Route descript ...

). It is a -story wood-frame structure, with a side-gable roof, clapboard siding, and a fieldstone foundation. A shed-roofed porch extends across the west side, supported by square posts with small capitals. The main facade has three pairs of French doors, evenly spaced, providing access to the hall, and there are three round-topped dormers in the main roof, which is capped by a small cupola with belfry. The east side of the building has a shed-roof ell extending across much of its width. Palladian windows are set on the building's north and south sides. The interior of the main block is a large hall, with the kitchen located in the rear ell. One end of the hall has a stage set under a proscenium arch. The hall was designed by the

firm of Mann & MacNeille, whose principals, Horace Mann and Perry MacNeille, were both summer residents of Bailey Island. The design was made in 1909 and the hall was built in 1911–12. It was made as a conscious imitation of the main house at

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, reflecting the then-popular Georgian Revival in architecture. The building served as a model for later community hall buildings the architects designed for several industrial working-class communities. The hall was built in part to provide a library to the local islanders, who were separated from the nearest library on Orr's Island by a ferry crossing that was not bridged until the construction in 1928 of the

Bailey Island Bridge The Bailey Island Bridge (also called the Cribstone Bridge) is a historic bridge in Harpswell, Maine, the town of Harpswell within Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County in the United States, state of Maine. History For many years, the resid ...

. The Mingo Club, a local social and literary society established in 1906 to manage a local lending library, was responsible for raising funds and maintaining the property. The hall was used for a wide variety of social functions, including lectures, dances, and concerts. Psychoanalyst

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...

gave his first seminar in America, on dreams, at Library Hall.
Explore New England By 1961 the Mingo Club's lending library had been discontinued; the hall continues to serve as a local event venue under the auspices of the Bailey Island Library Hall Association.

References

{{authority control Public libraries in Maine Bailey Island (Maine) Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Libraries in Cumberland County, Maine National Register of Historic Places in Cumberland County, Maine Library buildings completed in 1912

Description and history

See also

References