Buck Memorial Library

Bucksport’s first library, the Buckstown Social Library, was established in 1806, with Reverend Mighill Blood, the first pastor of the Congregational Church, serving as librarian. For about its first 60 years, it had no permanent home and moved among businesses in the downtown area. From the 1860s to 1887, it occupied a small building off Main Street near the present-day Bookstacks bookstore. Richard Pike Buck, grandson of Bucksport founder Jonathan Buck, promised funding for a new library but died before making the gift. His wife, Charlotte Spofford Buck, and daughter, Emmeline, fulfilled his wishes, and this Romanesque Revival-style building opened in 1887 under librarian Rev. Alfred L. Skinner. Designed by Boston architect and Blue Hill native George Albert Clough, it was built of Blue Hill granite lined with brick. Hard pine for the interior came from mills in South Carolina belonging to Buck descendants, and the millstones on the front lawn came from mills owned by Jonathan Buck. An addition at the back of the building was completed in 1990.

Bucksport, Maine · United States