Tens of tiny towns dot the Pioneer Valley and nearby foothills of Western Massachusetts, and from what I’ve seen so far, each one has its own small library. My sister and I visited thirteen of them, and we found ourselves charmed, delighted, and awed in turn. I’ll write about them here with the caveat that I’m not a librarian, so I did not assess the collections. Instead, I was looking at spaces and what it felt like to be a brief visitor to each one. I’ll take the towns in alphabetical order in this exploration of Western Massachusetts libraries.

Here’s the thing about libraries: they’re not just for borrowing books. You’ll always find more than you expect, including free Wi-Fi, spaces for kids to socialize, community events, comfy chairs, and art exhibitions. Every library we visited had its own personality — some elegant, some humble, some playful, and each filled with its own kind of joy.

Ashfield: Belding Memorial Library

Built in 1913 by a silk thread tycoon, Milo Beldling, the Ashfield library is a grand structure of stone and marble. Just beyond the front door, you step into an impressive entryway (features include mosaic art and a brass plaque); then you find yourself in a central room with high ceilings and dark wooden stacks.

While all of this could feel imposing, a 1993 renovation has left it feeling rather sweet. There are two side wings with nice seating areas and a friendly children’s area in the back.

The varied pieces of art in the building — and the tiny seed library — add to the library’s charm.

This was the only library in which I took a video, because the display of Japanese wind-up toys was simply wonderful.

Ashfield was by far the busiest library we visited, filled with patrons on a Saturday at noon, so we did not have much time to interact with the staff. But we were grateful to the very friendly librarian who took the time to share these toys with us (she also offered another visitor the chance to borrow a food dehydrator, which was by far the most unusual lending option we encountered during our trip).

Buckland: Buckland Public Library

Oh, how we loved the Buckland library. It felt welcoming right from the very start.

The interior is spacious yet manageable, roomy and pleasant to browse (we had visited half a dozen libraries by the time we got to Buckland, and this was the first library where we paused and checked out books). The original 1890 building and the 2010 addition in the back feel seamlessly integrated.

There are cozy places to sit, a super-helpful new librarian-to-be (she’s about to start her training), and a large children’s area.

Aside from a few old portraits, there’s not a lot of art on the walls, but we liked the little touches like the handmade reading logs and chalkboard doors.

Chesterfield: Chesterfield Public Library

Chesterfield easily wins the award for the cutest library in the hill towns. This is a one-room delight, filled with books from floor to ceiling — they’re even stacked inside of the old fireplace.

The friendly librarian explained that there are so many books and so little space that more volumes are kept in the basement, and some are rotated seasonally. We were impressed by how much they were able to do with a tiny space. Here’s the childrens’ area:

You can’t spend much time sitting and reading in this library — there simply isn’t room — but it’s a great place to look around (and you don’t have to move very far to do so).

The 1954 Chesterfield Public Library building is part of the historic Chesterfield walking tour; there are maps out front if you’d like to see a bit more of the town.

Conway: Field Memorial Library

The Field Memorial Library is jaw-droppingly impressive.

Built in 1901 by department store mogul Marshall Field as a memorial to his parents, this library is an architectural wonder. It’s filled with Italian marble (Brescia Violet marble, to be exact), mosaic tiles, and cast-iron stacks.

This place is worth visiting simply for the architectural splendor. Even the globe has its own archway in the 42-foot rotunda.

The messaging here is also wonderfully nineteenth century. Over the front door, large letters proclaim “FREE FOR ALL.” Inside the dome, a quote reads, “He that loveth a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter.”

Beyond the central rotunda, there are two grand reading rooms on either side:

The artwork here largely consists of busts of famous individuals and portraits of Fields and his parents, but we also found a few other items that gave the library a bit more life.

It may be that the space is so expansive that everything else feels tiny by comparison, but the book collection here felt smaller than we might have expected. That said, wow, is this a place worth seeing.

Cummington: Bryant Free Library

In 1872, poet and editor William Cullen Bryant decided to present a gift to his boyhood hometown: a library. This wasn’t a building on a grand scale, but it was personal; Bryant started off the collection with books from his own library.

The inside of the Bryant Free Library offers something much warmer and more joyful than you might expect.

That’s pretty much the whole library, a single room with two stories. The space is small and packed with materials. I was a huge fan of all of the woodwork, especially the railings of the upstairs galleries (though those were a 20th century safety addition). Upstairs, each window offers a seating nook …

… while downstairs, the tiniest sliver of a room has been turned into a cheerful children’s section.

There’s still plenty here to remind you that Bryant founded this whole thing, from collections of Bryant’s poetry to portraits of him on the wall.

If you’re interested in Bryant, you can learn a lot about him in many volumes at this library; you can also visit the Bryant Homestead just up the road. As a side note, I’ll add that one of the highlights of my visit to this library was talking with the librarian about travel. If you pay a visit and want to chat about international adventuring, say hi to Mark!

Easthampton: Emily Williston Memorial Library & Museum

This amazing building was designed by Boston architects and finished in 1901. The interior is all sweeping dark beams and white walls.

This is a fabulous historic space, though I would like a donor to come in and spruce up the place (and swap out the anachronistic carpet and fluorescent lighting). But there’s a lot to love here right now, including the fun and friendly downstairs children’s area.

I’m not sure why this is called a “library and museum” — it seems to have the same books-to-art-and-other-stuff ratio as many of the nearby libraries. But there are some interesting old pieces here, including a 28-star Civil War flag, an 1878 map of Easthampton, and a portrait of the library’s founder herself.

Florence: Lilly Library

Founded in 1890, this Victorian building still has antique oak tables and stained glass windows.

While there are a few touches that harken back to another era, the space generally feels new rather than old. A 2006 renovation made everything warm and bright, from the wooden bookshelves …

…to the sunny children’s area:

There’s not much in the way of art on the walls, but we did love the giant photo of Florence taken from above, the display with items from the library’s dedication, and the mischievous little monkey:

Speeches at the library’s 1890 dedication included, “The Right Use of Books,” “The Best Way to Spend Spare Hours,” and “The Reading Room and Its Influence.”

I should note that Florence is technically part of Northampton, but I gave the village its own designation because so many people talk about it as a distinct entity.

Goshen: Goshen Free Library

The one-room Goshen library sits inside the grand, multipurpose John James Memorial Town Hall, which was built out of local fieldstone in 1911 in the Classical Revival style. The library requires a bit of wandering to find; it’s tucked away on the second floor above a large empty meeting space — and en route, it feels like you’re first walking through a grange hall and then through an office building. Once you finally get there, you find a room with high ceilings and tall shelves.

This library had the first empty shelves we’d seen (though this is understandable given their height — you’d need a ladder to get up to them). And it has an unusually large section — maybe a quarter of the visible collection — dedicated to older books not in circulation. While you can’t check them out, you can sit and read them in wooden chairs at the single long table.

The Goshen library felt a bit scruffy around the edges, but it was also a friendly space in a cool old building.

Northampton: Forbes Library

The Forbes Library is unlike any other library we saw, mostly because it’s so much bigger. Built by a Hartford architect in the early 1890s in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, this is an impressive space. If you’re an architecture fan, you’ll want to admire the Gustavino arches (brick arches that both support the second floor and form modular units).

Because there’s so much space, there are plenty of places to sit and read — or just to wander.

There is also a lot of room for art — in fact, there’s a whole gallery upstairs — as well as antique pieces of furniture.

The very large basement plays host to an expansive children’s section, and there are many spaces for kids and families to enjoy the collection.

We were most surprised to find the Calvin Coolidge Presidential library and Museum here (it turns out that Forbes is the only library in the country to host a presidential library within its walls). Coolidge was Northampton’s mayor before becoming the Governor of Massachusetts and then Vice President and President of the US; all of his books and memorabilia occupy a single large room.

When you leave, you are invited to take home a card with a bit of Coolidge wisdom: “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarding genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and Determination alone are omnipotent.”

Shelburne: Arms Library

Shelburne was the only small town we visited to have two libraries, one right in the center of town and the other on the outskirts. The Beaux-Arts Arms Library sits right in the middle of the action. The library’s website says that this 1914 building is an “an attractive structure of brick and stone, and is an excellent example of small-town library architecture.” That seems like a modest description to me — while the building isn’t big, I found it both stately and commanding. The entryway is an elegant rotunda …

… and from here you can proceed to the stack room, the reading room (with its great animal and landscape murals around the top)…

… and the basement childrens’ room:

I was a fan of the art here — lots of large nature photos.

The Arms feels light and airy, which makes it seem larger than it actually is. This isn’t a library where I necessarily wanted to lounge — it doesn’t have a lot of comfy furniture — but it is a space where I just kept wanting to keep looking around.

Shelburne: Shelburne Free Public Library

This 1898 Gothic Revival building is both the sweeter and the smaller of Shelburne’s two libraries. The helpful and patient librarian (we asked her a lot of questions) told us that when the library was built, the stones on the structure’s exterior were donated by farmers all over Shelburne.

The interior is small and functional (originally, this was the only room).

A small addition in the back, built in the early 1950s with stone designed to match the original, houses the children’s section and more shelving.

There’s no adult seating here — this is a really small space — but if you want to sit outside, there are a few tree stumps by the river. The library is very much in the woods today …

… but old photographs show it as having once been more centrally located.

Whately: S. White Dickinson Memorial Library

While most of the libraries in this area hail from the turn of the last century, the Whately library was built in the post-war years. We owe this building to the “careful and frugal living and wise investments” of Anna W. Dickinson, daughter of Salmon White Dickinson. The building consists of three rooms: a serene central rotunda with books all around …

… a room with tight and functional stacks, and a bright and cheerful children’s room:

The town website calls this “the library with a view,” and with good reason. The building has many long, large windows that look out over this scene:

Some people come here only for the view, but it would be a shame to miss this calm and inviting library — make sure to go inside if you can.

Williamsburg: Meekins Library

Opened in 1897, this granite and sandstone building feels like a great mix of the old, the new, and the quirky. The original section has great woodwork and a mosaic tiled floor …

…while the juncture of the 1897 building and the 2003 expansion has a fascinating combination of stonework, stained glass, and knitting:

There’s art everywhere here: quilts, knitted octopuses, porcelain bunnies, paintings, paper mache — it’s an eclectic melange.

The librarians here are friendly and helpful, and there’s one more added bonus: Meekins sits right up against the Mill River, so if the weather is nice, you can grab a book and head outside to one of the library’s benches or chairs.

Western Massachusetts Libraries Visit Tips

1. Check the opening hours of each library before venturing out. Hours vary widely, and nearly every library is closed on Sundays.
2. Look out for art exhibits, author talks, and community events. You’ll usually find these on individual library websites.
3. Plan time to linger — enjoy the reading nooks, local art, and architecture.
4. If you’re borrowing, look beyond the books. You can often find jigsaw puzzles, games, seeds, and even free passes to local museums.

Visiting these libraries is a real treat. Each one gives offers a glimpse into a town, its people, and its history — and each. has its own way of drawing you in and making you want to stay.

Further Reading (Pun Mostly Intended)

• If you love libraries as much as I do, be sure to check out my post on the Libraries of Mount Desert Island in Maine.
• For more on poet William Cullen Bryant’s legacy, drive up the road to the Bryant Homestead — also right here in Western Massachusetts.

Finally, if you have a favorite library I haven’t explored yet — or if one of these is especially dear to you — I’d love to hear about it!