B.H. Bartol Library Building

B.H. Bartol Library Building. . , For close to a century this building housed Freeport’s public library. It was one of over l ,600 libraries built in the US with money donated by the industrialist and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie. The Carnegie organization donated a total of $6,500 towards the building, while a local library organization invested $3,500, and the community agreed to provide annually for the library’s improvement. The library was named in honor of Barnabus Henry Bartol, a successful engineer and businessman born in Freeport, whose heirs donated $1,000 to the cause. The building was dedicated in May, 2006. , By the mid-1990s, it was clear the library organization needed additional space. In 1997, the Freeport Community Library was built off Upper Main Street, without the need for outside support. The new facility ensures the community's continued access to the library's valuable resources. The town still owns the Bartol building here on Main Street and leases it for retail business use. , The first record of a library in Freeport dates to 1830, when Josiah Mitchell maintained a modest library in his law office. The institution struggled after Mitchell's death, moving from one location to another until it was disbanded in 1900. , George Burnham, who trained in Paris at Ecole des Beaux Arts and was the architect of such major Portland buildings as the Porteous, Mitchell, and Braun Department Store and the Cumberland County Courthouse, designed the library.