To Welcome...To Inspire...To Enrich the Mind
The Stowe Free Library is a beautiful mid-19th century building with a 21st century attitude. We are proud to serve our community with both print and digital resources, as well as engaging library programming for all ages. We are dedicated to promoting literacy and lifelong learning; bridging the digital divide; and offering the opportunity for everyone in our community to feel welcomed, explore personal growth, and indulge in the love of reading. Plus we have DVDs.
INTERLIBRARY LOAN
COMPUTER LAB
Browse and Explore
The Stowe Free Library houses approximately 25,000 book titles, 2,000 film titles, 1,400 audio books on CD, nearly 3,000 downloadable audio book titles, 200 music CDs, and more than 100 magazine, journal and newspaper subscriptions. Our Vermont Room is a resource area for Vermont and Stowe information and history. The Stowe Free Library has been storing the Stowe Reporter papers since 1959. Search the library's catalog to find your next read. Explore our growing collection of unique items available for check out from museum passes to telescopes. And take advantage of 24/7 access to our digital library of ebooks and audiobooks.
RESERVE TITLE
PURCHASE SUGGESTION
MUSEUM PASSES
Established 1866
The earliest libraries in Stowe were subscription or membership libraries as was popular in the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1866, the Stowe Free Library was founded with a donation of 51 books from a group of visiting summer artists and supplemented by a town appropriation of $100. Stowe was the first town in Vermont to appropriate a sum of money for library purposes under the state of law of 1865.
After occupying several locations in the village, the library finally found a real home in the “new” town hall, the Akeley Memorial Building, in 1904. Seventy-seven years later, the library moved to the renovated old High School building at the corner of Pond and School Street.
The beautiful classic Greek Revival building where the library is now located was built as a school for Stowe children in 1863. Eventually used exclusively for upper grades, the building was abandoned in 1974 when a new High School was constructed at a location away from the center of town. Thanks to a bequest from Helen Day Montanari and the diligent work of local preservationists, the building, once known as “Old Yeller,” was restored in 1981 to house the Stowe Free Library and the Helen Day Art Center (now The Current). A major addition to the building was completed in 1994 through local support and a modest interior renovation was made to the library in 2002 through a grant from the Freeman Foundation of Stowe.
The library is operated as a municipal department of the Town of Stowe and, as such, is about 90 percent tax-supported with the remaining income from endowment interest, fees, fines, gifts, and the proceeds from our annual book sale.
