Our Story

The West Falmouth Library is a place of learning, a place of gathering and sharing ideas, and a place of respite and renewal.

We owe a lot to five young women who wanted to enrich their lives in the quiet farming village of West Falmouth in the mid-1870s. They formed a club, The Young People’s Union that met for musical and literary programs weekly. From there, the young women grew the organization through membership and weekly dues and by 1879 they owned 50 volumes. A closet in the Gifford home thus became the first library for the village.

After moves to the old Methodist Church and then to a second-floor office of the Dennison Tag Factory (since burned down), men of the village built the first library building on Depot Street, now Old Dock Road. This building was later moved to a site closer to the West Falmouth Market where it operated for fifteen years. In 1891, the Young People’s Union was dissolved and replaced with the West Falmouth Library Association. At the time they possessed 800 books. The West Falmouth Library Association was a private, non-profit organization, supported by membership fees, donations, bequests, and an annual stipend from the Town of Falmouth.

R. J. and Abby (Grant) Mendenhall of Minneapolis donated the land where the West Falmouth Library is now situated. After that a building fund was established. The present library building was built and financed primarily by two West Falmouth Quakers, brothers Daniel and Henry Swift, in 1895. The new building was dedicated on July 15, 1896, supported by townspeople and summer residents alike. Almost 1,000 books were moved from the smaller premises to the grand new building.

In 1972 the Library completed an addition designed to add more space for shelving, storage, a kitchen and additional meeting space for organizations such as the West Falmouth Preschool Cooperative, a tenant for many years.

In July 2007 the West Falmouth Library began lending to the public and eliminated its membership fee. The collection of over 12,500 items was added to the CLAMS regional sharing network and the Library began operating on CLAMS in April 2008. This allows patrons access to collections from over 35 libraries stretching from Plymouth to Provincetown and the Islands.

Today’s library embodies the spirit of those five young young women looking to enrich their lives and those of the community. We sit at the vital center of our community as a place of learning—a place to gather and share knowledge and ideas, to find respite and renewal.

Throughout its history the Library has thrived as the informal community center of West Falmouth, and has served the greater Falmouth community with educational, informational and entertaining events. It is the aspiration of the Library Board, the Director, and staff, to expand library and community services to residents and visitors alike, through its collection of books, media and diverse programming.

The West Falmouth Library is an independent non-profit organization supported by the generosity of its patrons, grants, bequests, fundraising and an annual stipend from the Town of Falmouth.

For a detailed chronology of the West Falmouth Library’s history, click here.