Marstons Mills Public Library

A library
on the
cape

Marstons Mills is a itty, bitty village in the city of Barnstable on Cape Cod. Definitely a cool, little place but not really a whole lot there. However they do have one very impressive and extremely friendly library.

The original library in Marstons Mills was founded back in 1891 when a bookcase was put in a local post office and loaded up with books. You could only take out one book at a time simply because they didn't have a lot of books and they didn't one person to have them all.

A demand for books was so great that it became obvious that a more permanent library was needed so the present building was constructed in 1894. Still didn't have a whole lots of books but over the years and decades the tiny edifice was expanded with more rooms until now the library has 21,000 volumes, audios, computers and all the modern amenities of a much larger library.

However the building still holds on to it's historical roots with a cool fireplace and rambling and non symmetrical walls. From the outside you can see how the building just sort of flows from one section to another with a pragmatic sense of aesthetics.

As with most small, local libraries the building also serves as a place for events, displays, poetry readings and information about town events. Local folks and visitors can come here to find out what's going on.

And like many small, local libraries this library has an absolutely wonderful librarian. Helpful, friendly, knowledgeable and welcoming, the one I met was the quintessential small town librarian. She probably knew everything there was to know about the village and the Cape and was worth a visit to Marston Mills just to talk to. The library itself probably gets four stars but with the great librarian definitely gets five.

The best little library on Cape!
It's not the Cavernous Mashpee library, or the "you need a key from the security guard for the bathroom in Hyannis" library.
It is just the best little library on Cape Cod!