Lydia B. Essex was born in 1861 to Albert H. and Lydia Smith Baker Essex. A long-time summer resident of the town, she was a former teacher who, in 1937, bequeathed to the town of Tiverton a two-acre lot of land and an endowment of approximately $42,000 to construct and maintain a new free public library to be named for her mother. The donation of the two-acre plot, site of the Essex family home on Highland Road and historic ground of Revolutionary War fame near the sites of Forts Durfee and Barton, marked the first time in the history of the Town of Tiverton that a substantial gift had been made to the town. It was directed that the library be built of stone like the Russell Library in Acushnet, and construction began in October of 1938. The cornerstone was laid in May of 1939, and newspaper accounts of that day state that the cornerstone contained picture accounts of a disaster that was still fresh in the minds of the citizens of seafaring Tiverton – the hurricane of 1938. The foundation of the book collection for the library came from the Whitridge Hall Library which donated its books to the new library. The 2800 square foot, slate-roofed Essex Library served the town for decades until the new Tiverton Public Library opened its doors in 2015.
Biography and image provided by Tiverton Historical Society
Built with Shorthand