Snow Library

ORLEANS, MA.

The history of Snow Library is unique in its ties to the fishing and shipbuilding trades of the 19th century. You could say the library was founded on the wealth of the sea.

In 1876 David Snow, a Boston merchant who had grown rich in the maritime industry, died, leaving a portion of his estate to the town of Orleans. The $5,000 he bequeathed to his hometown was given with the condition that the money is used to “provide a suitable and permanent building” for a public library.

In his will, Snow wrote, “The legacy of the means of supplying a public library to Orleans will be productive of great good if the people of that town will also learn everyday wisdom and practical prudence from the voice of their departed towns boy, who being dead yet speaketh.”