Lobsterfest helps library buy new computers

CENTER HARBOR — When people buy tickets to the annual Lobsterfest, which takes place in Center Harbor each summer, the proceeds are used to benefit an effort in town. This year, funds raised went to the Nichols Memorial Library.

Members of the Center Harbor Community Development Association presented the library with a check for $4,000 on Friday. The money will help the library upgrade its computer system.

The Lobsterfest, a seafood or chicken dinner put on by volunteers, also funds the community’s tree-lighting ceremony on the day after Thanksgiving, and the annual Skatefest, which will take place on Feb. 17 next year.

The small Nichols Memorial Library sits at the intersection of Route 25B and Main Street, and, since it opened, it has reflected the town’s welcoming nature. The library is named after its benefactor, James Edwin Nichols, who was born in Meredith in 1845 and made a fortune in the canned goods industry in Boston and New York. Nichols left his fingerprints on the library in more ways than one.

He was a sportsman who was proud of his trophies, several of which decorate the library’s walls. Nichols provided the library with information cards that detail when and where the moose, elk, mountain goat, and others, were “collected.”

It was also Nichols’ suggestion that the library be one of the few free libraries in the state — there’s no residency requirement, and anyone can get a library card. Last year, the library recorded nearly 6,000 visits, well in excess of the town’s population of 1,100 as recorded during the 2010 census. Each of those library visitors checked out an average of two items.

Many more people logged onto the library’s free wi-fi. During a nice day in the summer, it’s not unusual to see people sitting on benches or the grassy lawn, checking emails through a laptop or phone.

Architecturally speaking, the Nichols Library, built in 1910, is distinctive. Nichols (1845-1914) commissioned Charles Brigham, a well-known architect from Boston, to design the structure. Brigham had previously designed the Annex to the Massachusetts State House, a library and town hall for Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and many schools and churches, including the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.

The Nichols Library is made of sand-colored brick on a granite foundation, with a carved limestone sill and slate roof, said Librarian Jon Kinnaman.

“It has been described as one of the finest Neo-Classical libraries in the state,” Kinnaman said.