Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1974
The Dorchester Atheneum was a private subscription library organized in 1856 and located at the corner of East Cottage Pleasant and Pond Streets.
In March, 1856, several gentlemen in the north part of the town suggested the idea of a society for the promotion of social intercourse and mutual improvement. Among the most active were John J. May, Ambrose H. White, and Amasa Pray. A public meeting was called, and such progress was made that the old Everett school-house was soon purchased and removed from Sumner Street to the Junction of Pleasant, Cottage and Pond streets. [In 1856 the town had constructed a new building for the Edward Everett School next to the old one on Sumner Street.]
The organization issued a catalog of books owned in 1857 and again in 1870. But by 1889 the Bromley atlas shows that the building was at that time no longer owned by the Atheneum.
Sometime between 1918 and 1933 the building was taken down, and the city acquired the property, which is now a playground.
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