History of Rice Public Library

Despite her affluence and prominence as one of the area’s wealthiest residents, Arabella Rice (1822-1872) remains something of a mystery. Even her image has been lost to time with no extant photographs or portraits. Described as “just a very quiet soul who lived a very quiet life,” she never married or had children.

Rice was descended from a prominent family of Kittery-based mariners and sea merchants through her father, Robert Rice. Her ancestors included shipbuilders, privateers, and merchants. Her grandfather Samuel Rice enslaved two people, named Dinah Gibson and Boston, until slavery was outlawed in Massachusetts (and Maine, then a province of Massachusetts) in 1783, following the Quock Walker Cases and the ruling that slavery was against the state’s constitution. Both Gibson and Boston continued to live and work in the area after they were freed.

Arabella’s father, a retired sea captain, shipowner, and leading Portsmouth merchant, named his best-known vessel The Arabella, after his youngest daughter. As the sole survivor of her immediate family, Arabella inherited the family fortune. When she died of typhoid fever in 1872, her will set aside the sum of $30,000 to honor her father’s wish of giving “a sum of money for educational purposes to the inhabitants of his native Kittery.” In turn, Rice Public Library honors this gift through its name.

First opened in 1874, the library used rented space on Wallingford Square for 15 years, in a building that no longer stands. The building that has housed Rice Public Library since 1889 was designed by renowned Boston architect Sheperd S. Woodcock. Constructed of Philadelphia brick, the Victorian-era building had a Romanesque visual style noted for its marble columns, granite steps and sills, and a vaulted ceiling with stained-glass panels.

Rice Public Library opened on November 6, 1889. The Reverend James De Normandie of Portsmouth, Rice’s pastor for several years, delivered the keynote address at the library’s dedication ceremony. The institution’s first trustees included former New Hampshire Governor Ichabod Goodwin, who was married to Arabella’s cousin Sarah Parker Rice. Their mansion is one of the celebrated landmarks of Portsmouth’s Strawbery Banke.

The year “1888” is etched into the front of the building. Arabella’s initials, “AR,” can still be seen above the original entrance on Wentworth Street, elegantly carved within a panel to the left of the archway high over the granite steps. They are also inscribed along the Italian marble fireplace on the first floor, inside the library.

In its early days, Rice Public Library held separate reading rooms for ladies and gentlemen on the first floor. The second level of the building served as a meeting place for Civil War veterans from the local Grand Army of the Republic chapter.

Around 1915, in an era of rapid growth for Kittery and better transportation infrastructure, Rice Public Library re-purposed the Ladies’ Reading Room into Rice’s first Children’s Room. The Gentlemen's Reading Room became the Reference Room. At this time, it was first noted that the library may need to build an expansion.

Toward the middle of the 20th century, the largely unfinished basement was renovated with a kitchen, restrooms, and a new meeting space. In 1964, the large room on the second floor of the library, known then as Memorial Hall, was converted into the new Children’s area. Redesigned with wood paneling over the plaster walls, brown floor tiles, and a dropped ceiling covering the stained glass, the room that once held Civil War artifacts and hosted talks by veterans was given a new, unflattering nickname: “the brown box.”

During this period, the first intentional curation of a local history collection began with the institution of the Maine Room, in the turret room of the second floor. In 1979, the landmark structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places. “Of its type and style,” the Maine Historic Preservation Commission states in its nomination form, “the Rice Public Library is by far the most outstanding building in the State of Maine.” That same year, Olmstead Associates of Brookline, Massachusetts, designed new gardens for the grounds. Harbourside Garden Club donated the funds for the plans, plants, and landscaping, and maintained the gardens for many years.

Over time, the Rice building became too cramped for its growing collections. The former Southern York County District Courthouse, located diagonally across the street at 2 Walker Street, was purchased in 1988 and renovated into the Taylor Annex. The judge’s bench was converted into the circulation desk, and the judicial chambers became the staff room. Named for local physician and former library trustee Paul Taylor, the Taylor Annex opened on October 30, 1989.

Also in 1989, longtime patron Sarah Almyra Roberts left the library more than $300,000 in her will, allowing for a major overhaul of the Rice building. The renovation included the removal of the dropped ceiling on the second floor, revealing the library’s exquisite stained-glass ceiling. This second-story room was dedicated in Roberts’ memory and used for children’s programming and youth collections. A plaque was erected in her honor in January 1992, located on a new mezzanine built to house more bookshelves.

The mezzanine remained in place from 1991 until the renovation and expansion in 2022, giving space for seating during numerous events, such as the popular Rice Pudding Poetry readings. The Kay Howells Room, dedicated in memory of Katherine F. Howells, was in the former basement of the Rice structure. It was converted into the periodicals room and used as a meeting space for the library’s board of directors and the Friends of Rice Public Library.

With the continued growth of the population of Kittery and the collections in both the Rice and Taylor buildings, the library again needed to expand. Beginning in 2011, the Board of Directors began planning for a future that would bring the library back under one roof. Years of design iterations and community outreach followed.

In July 2019, Rice Public Library became a department of the Town of Kittery and brought the question of expansion before Kittery’s voters. In November the same year, a $5 million bond referendum for expanding and updating the library was passed with a vote of 1,719 to 582. After a delay of only six months, due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, construction began in March 2021 and was completed in May 2022. During those 14 months, the majority of the library’s collection was housed in the Taylor Annex, where staff continued to serve the community. After moving everything into the renovated and expanded Rice building, the Town sold the former Taylor Annex.

For the first time in 33 years, the library’s collections were in one place, when Rice Public Library reopened on June 4, 2022. In the summer of 2024, construction commenced on the Ann H. Grinnell Children’s Garden, in memory of a long-time Rice patron and former Town Councilor. On September 5 of that year, the community was invited to a dedication ceremony and garden party to celebrate and open the new Children’s Garden.

Over 150 years after her death, Arabella’s generosity continues to benefit the citizens of her father’s native town.

This renovation was funded by the voters of Kittery and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which generously provided additional funding for the 2022 expansion.

-- D. Allan Kerr & Asher Littlefield