From Historical Rutland: an illustrated history of Rutland, Vermont, from the granting of the charter in 1761 to 1911 by Rev. F. E. Davison, Rutland, Vt.: P.H. Brehmer, 1911, page 48:
Libraries
In January, 1886, the preliminary meeting looking toward the organization of a library was held. The meeting resulted a month later in a loan exhibition of curios and historic articles in the Clement Bank building, the amount received being over $300. With these funds the present library was started. February 20, 1886, a permanent organization was formed at a meeting in Baxter hall. Seventy-two women subscribed to the articles of incorporation, with Mrs. Julia C. R. Dorr as president. The first books were purchased in April, 1886, and the library was opened July 5, 1886, in the block at 23 Merchants Row, with 3,234 books on the shelves. The first week the average number of books put in circulation daily was 71 . The circuulation the first year was 20,283. The transfer to the lower floor of Memorial Hall was made in March, 1889. The library has had but three librarians during the twenty-five years of its existence, Miss Humphrey, Miss Titcomb and Miss Lucy D. Cheney. Many of the charter members are still active workers. Mrs. Julia C. R. Dorr remains the honorary president. The number of volumes in the library, February 1, 1911, was 17,946.
Baxter Memorial Library
On the southeast corner of Library Avenue and Grove Street stands the gray marble building erected by Mary E. Baxter and her son Hugh H. Baxter, in memory of Gen. Horace Henry Baxter, who was for many years a citizen of Rutland, [49] dying here in 1884. The structure, which is of gray marble from West Rutland, rock-faced throughout, in the Romanesque style of architecture, was erected in 1889. It contains a large central book room, flanked on either side by reading rooms, also a librarian's room, lavatories, etc., the whole finished in quartered oak. Among the attractions is a magnificent fireplace of hand-carved quartered oak, blue marble and slabs of Mexican onyx, which fills the whole end of one of the reading rooms. The building will accommodate 20,000 volumes, and contains many rare and costly books, such as some of the earliest versions of the English Bible and Latin classics, and several fine specimens of printing selected on account of sumptuous and historical bindings.