Thursday was a rainy day, chilly for late May, and I needed to do something to improve my mood, so I set out on an afternoon’s tour of libraries near the New Hampshire coastline. The towns in this region mostly have small land areas, and each other has its own library, so I could cover a lot without too much travel. The ones I put on my list were South Hampton, Seabrook, Hampton, Rye, and Stratham. On the way home I passed right by the East Kingston library, so I dropped in there, as well as the Plaistow library.

With better planning I could have covered all four Hamptons — Hampton, North Hampton, South Hampton, and Hampton Falls — without significantly increasing my mileage. Maybe another time.

The first and smallest was the South Hampton library. The town’s population is less than a thousand. Getting there involved driving in the rain on narrow roads and made me a bit nervous. The library adjoins the town offices, and the public part is a single moderate-sized room. It’s a nice place, though, and the librarian showed me around. I mentioned that I like to look for books by people I know, and we spotted a copy of Where Are My Books? by Debbie Ridpath Ohi.

Next came Seabrook, at the southeast corner of the state. It has a modern library building, attached to an older one, the Brown Library, that was built in 1893 and moved to its present location when the new one was built. The Brown Library now houses the town’s historical society, and it was open when I got there, so I got to see their artifacts (lots of duck decoys!) and talk with the people there.

From there I continued northward along the coast. Hampton combines a new and an old building, though not in so spectacular a way. The original Lane Memorial Library is a classical-looking building with a nice entrance facing Winnacunnet Road but no walkway leading to it. You enter around the side, in the expanded building.

Farther north, Rye’s library is impressive for a town of 5.5 thousand people. It too was expanded from a smaller library. The original section has a fireplace which was lit on this chilly day.

From there I headed inland to Stratham’s Wiggin Memorial Library and caught Scott, the Assistant Director. We talked about my possibly accompanying a silent movie there around Halloween this year.

That completed my planned itinerary, but the East Kingston Library was directly on my way home, so I stopped in there. Looking out the window, you can see cows and an occasional Amtrak train.

And of course, I had to drop in the Plaistow Library on the way home, but that doesn’t count as touring.

Here are some pictures of the libraries on Flickr.