The Atheneum, Natucket’s library, was one of the primary venues for book festival events. Built as a private literary institution in 1834, the building—and all its contents—were lost in the Great Fire of 1846. But it was rebuilt in 1847, reopening only a year later. During the late 1800s such luminaries as Fredrick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and others gave lectures here. In 1900 the Atheneum became a public library. And in 1996 the building was renovated, restoring the Great Hall on the second floor.
Image Credit:
Jeremiah Chamberlin