HOULTON, Maine — Margaret Steeves still has fond memories of visiting the Cary Library in Houlton when she was a child.
Although the 68-year-old moved with her family out of the community shortly after she turned 12 years old, she returned frequently for summer visits and uses social media to keep up with longtime friends from her home in Rhode Island.
While her memories mostly center around the books she discovered and enjoyed there, another recollection is the most fond — the glass floor that was once in the building.
“My grandmother always talked about that glass floor,” she said recently. “And I really wanted to see it because I was just so fascinated by the idea of a floor made of glass. I guess I thought it was like Cinderella’s glass slipper. But there was a rule that you had to be a certain age to go up and see it, so I only saw it once, I believe, before we moved away.”
Leigh Cummings, curator of the Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum, acknowledged that the glass floor was one of the most fascinating features of the museum.
“It was part of the original building when it opened in 1904,” he said. “It was on the second floor and it is true that you had to be a certain age to see it. I believe it was 12 years old and I think they said it was a safety precaution or something.”
Cummings said that the glass was not clear, but opaque stained glass.
“You couldn’t really look down through it and see into the first floor of the library or anything,” he said. “But I know that they were very protective of it.”
A piece of the glass floor that was originally constructed on the second story of the Cary Library is pictured on Tuesday, Aug 27, 2019. The glass was thought to have been taken out of the library in the 1960s.
(Jen Lynds)
The library, a one-and-a-half-story T-shaped structure built out of coursed ashlar granite, was designed by John Calvin Stevens. Stevens, a prominent Portland architect, was a major innovator of the colonial revival style of architecture. He designed more than 1,000 buildings across the state before his death in 1940. The Cary Library was established due to a major bequest from Dr. George Cary, a local medical doctor and former state legislator. Andrew Carnegie, an industrialist and philanthropist, also contributed a $10,000 bequest.
Between 1893 and 1919, Carnegie paid to build 1,689 libraries in the United States. Glass floors were a staple of Carnegie libraries, according to Abigail Van Slyck, author of “Carnegie Libraries and American Culture, 1890-1920”. Not only did the floors provide an interesting aesthetic, the author wrote, they also provided more light in the library stacks.
The library is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Lois Logue, who now lives in Bangor, had similar memories about the floor. She said that she and her childhood friends used to dare each other to sneak upstairs and see the floor.
“I never was brave enough to do it,” she said. “But I did see it when I was older, and I think that anyone who remembers that would have fond memories of it. Not just the glass floor, but the beautiful, old woodwork. It is a stunning library.”
Cummings said that he believes the floor was taken up sometime in the 1950s. The library was expanded in 1968.
Linda Faucher, the current librarian, said that she also was not sure when the floor was replaced. But she said that the library board did save a portion of the glass as a memento. It sits near the wireless area as a base for the clipper ship model on the first floor.
