About

 

The New Sharon Public Library was established by the New Sharon Women’s Club in early 1915.  Opening on May 1^, of 1915 the library collection consisted of 600 books and a new set of reference books.  Patrons with a New Sharon address could check out one book and they could be kept out a two week period.  They were open on Wednesday and Saturday from 1 to 5 PM.

The City of New Sharon has always provided a place for the library, before the 1977 the library was housed in the “Women’s Club Room” on the west end of the City Building, now known as the City Park Building.  In 1976 the Community Development Corp bought the building at 107 West Maple St and remodeled the building to be the new location of the library.  On April 23, 1977 the students and others lined up between the old location of the library and the new location, standing 3ft apart, passing books down the line, moving the library in 2 hours!

For many years the library was under the leadership of Arlene Stilwell.  With her passing in 2012 the library was passed on to the City of New Sharon.  On July 1, 2015, 100 years & 2 months after opening its doors, the New Sharon Library ended its run as a privately owned library and became a publicly owned library.  The new Board of Trustees quickly renamed the library the Stilwell Public Library in honor of Arlene Stilwell.