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History of Leach Library

In 1830 there was a social library in Londonderry consisting of several hundred volumes kept at William Anderson’s store and then the home of Robert Mack.  It only lasted a few years, however before the books were sold at auction and the proceeds divided among shareholders.  Residents in the town tried again to form a library in 1858 when they purchased two hundred volumes which were later donated to the Leach Library.  The true origins of the library didn’t occur until a bequest of $3000 by David Rollins Leach was accepted by the town to build an addition to the Town Hall for a library room.  The room was officially opened on February 25, 1880 with about one thousand books on the shelves.  In 1948 the books were moved to the Central School where the library stood for 25 years.  As it outgrew its space with 12,000 books, a separate building was erected at its current location and opened in the summer of 1973.  The population grew from 5,000 to nearly 20,000 in the late 1980s so there was a need for an expansion of the library.  The community supported this expansion on the third try in 1995 and approved $2,300,000 for an addition to the library.  The project broke ground in May of 1996 and the present library opened in February of 1997 and was dedicated on June 13 of that year.