On This Date in WPL History: October 21, 1962 - Cornerstone Ceremony at Main Library

 

Photo credit: Worcester Daily Telegram, October 22, 1962

Library life in the time of COVID-19 has meant that librarians have been able to work on projects that we might not have had a chance to tackle otherwise! Recently we've been examining interesting tidbits of Worcester Public Library's history from our local history collection. Our collection relating to WPL includes documents, photographs and other visual media, scrapbooks, many newspaper clippings, and other assorted ephemera. We are still organizing and inventorying our collection in hopes of preserving and making its contents more accessible. In the meantime, we hope to share some of our fascinating finds with our community through our #throwbackthursday posts on our Instagram feed as well as periodic blog entries and other social media posts. Therefore, in honor of our current renovation of the Main Library at 3 Salem Square, we look back at when we held the cornerstone laying ceremony for the new library building.

As you may be aware, the Main Library was not always located opposite the City Hall and the Worcester Common in downtown Worcester. Its previous location was on Elm Street (on a site that is now part of the Pearl Elm Municipal Garage) but space was an issue, even back in the 1920s as evidenced by several newspaper articles in our clipping files. After much debate over the years regarding where to build the new Main Library, the city purchased land in the Salem Square Redevelopment Project (on the site of the former Worcester Knitting Company building). Construction began in May 1962 and it was anticipated at that time that the construction would be completed the following May (spoiler alert: it was not completed by the following May!). By October 1962, the new Main Library construction would celebrate a significate milestone: the laying of its cornerstone.

Of course you might be wondering: what is a cornerstone and why should we celebrate it? According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, a cornerstone is a "ceremonial building block, usually placed ritually in the outer wall of a building to commemorate its dedication." Our new cornerstone also contained a time capsule with the following items as reported to the Worcester Evening Gazette prior to the ceremony:

Now, what ceremony would be complete without an invitation and commemorative program?

Invitation to the Laying of the Cornerstone, Sunday October 21, 1962

 The program is useful to researchers and fans of Worcester history because it reads like a veritable 1960s Who's Who of local and state dignitaries. Also a sign of the times: several local religious officials participated in the day's proceedings. 

Cornerstone Ceremony Program

The local newspapers of the day, including the Worcester Daily Telegram, covered the Cornerstone Ceremony.

"New Library's Cornerstone Is Laid," Article from the Worcester Daily Telegram, October 22, 1962

One of our most interesting finds relating to the Cornerstone Ceremony is a digitized video of the color slides from that day. Our current Facilities Manager recently shared the video with us and we would like to share it with our readers. Check out the fashion of the era!

The new Main Library at Salem Square was eventually completed in 1964. On May 10, 1964, the Elm Street location of the Worcester Public Library closed its doors to the public and on May 22, 1964, we held our dedication for the new building. It opened to the public the following Monday.

For more information on the history of Worcester Public Library, visit https://www.mywpl.org/history-1 or check out other blog posts under the Worcester Public Library History label!