Aquinnah Public Library

The Aquinnah Public Library is located in the historic Red Schoolhouse building at 1 Church Street in Aquinnah. It was renovated by the town with the assistance of a grant through the Massachusetts Historic Commission.

The Gay Head Public Library (renamed the Aquinnah Public Library in 1998) was established in 1901 by an act of the State Legislature in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. At the time of its establishment, the legislature also appropriated funds for the purchase of a small collection. Prior to that time, the town school was the sole repository of publicly-owned volumes. From its inception, the new library found itself competing for space with all the other public needs of the town. The schoolhouse was the only public building in existence until the Town Hall was constructed in 1929. Books purchased with that first entitlement and those brought in later years were kept in the schoolhouse and were later moved across the street to a room next to the stage in the new Town Hall.

Around 1950, the collection, which had grown to nearly 3,000 books, was moved back to the small rear “furnace” room of the schoolhouse, which had expanded slightly to accommodate its new use. In 1956 and 1957, however, the school needed the extra room and the library was forced to close while a new home was created for it. In 1958, a crew of volunteers brought the library collection to a cellar area under the west side of the Town Hall, which they excavated manually to create a finished room built by Chilmark contractor Herbert Hancock. Damp conditions and flooding next forced the removal of the books to a room on the east side of the main hall. After the school closed down in the mid 1960s, the tax collector and town clerk set up an office there. It was not until 10 years later that new office space was constructed in the Town Hall for those officials, and the library collection found its way back to the schoolhouse where it remains today. Except for the addition of modern plumbing, the removal of a bell tower, and a progression of heating systems, the building has remained much as it was originally conceived. It is currently the centerpiece of the historic town center district that is listed in the National Historic Register. The small one-room schoolhouse was constructed prior to 1844, originally on Old South Road in what was then the center of town, and was moved to its current location 30 years later.