Various - The Bay State Monthly. Volume 2, No. 6, March, 1885

"Both branches of the City Council met on Tuesday evening and transacted the following business:

The principal business was

IN JOINT CONVENTION.

Major Davis presided and announced that Judge T.K. Ware, Chairman of the Trustees of the Public Library, had a communication to present to the City Council.

Judge Ware said that he appeared before the Council at the request of Honorable Rodney Wallace, who, previous to his departure for the South, left with him the following communication which gave him pleasure and gratification to be able to present to the City Council:

To His Honor, the Mayor and the City Council of the City of Fitchburg ;

GENTLEMEN:—The subscriber has felt for a long time that a building with proper appurtenances for our Public Library here in Fitchburg was much needed, and makes the following proposition, viz:

I propose to convey by proper deed to the city of Fitchburg my lot of land situated at the corner of Main street and Newton place, and to expend, with the advice and approval of the Trustees of the Public Library, within the next two years, a sum not less than forty thousand dollars ($40,000) in erecting a building on said lot; said building to be under the care and management of the Board of Trustees of the Public Library for the time being, and to be used for a Free Public Library, Reading Rooms and Art Gallery, and for no other purpose.

And it is understood that the city government, accepting these donations for the above purposes, shall assume and bear the current expenses of said building, grounds and appurtenances, after the Library building shall have been completed and furnished.

If the above proposition is accepted I shall proceed to carry out the same as soon as it can conveniently be done.

Mayor Davis said this act on the part of our esteemed fellow citizen calls forth the profound gratitude of all the inhabitants of our city. I cannot allow this opportunity to pass without expressing my thanks, as a citizen, for the munificent gift. May his life be long and his prosperity increasing.

The following order, introduced by Mayor Davis, was then unanimously adopted:

Ordered , That the City of Fitchburg accept the donation of Honorable Rodney Wallace to it of the lot of land on the corner of Main street and Newton place, and the Library building to be erected by him thereon, upon the conditions and in accordance with the terms and provisions contained in his written communication and proposal to the Mayor and City Council; and places on record its profound appreciation of the public spirit and munificence of the donor, and its recognition of the incalculable benefits which will result to his fellow citizens and their descendants and successors for all time from this noble gift.

Alderman Joel said the surprise was so great and so agreeable that words were not at his command to express the thanks he, in common with all other members, felt for the munificent gift presented by Mr. Wallace. He moved that a committee be appointed to prepare and forward a vote of thanks to Honorable Rodney Wallace for his gift. The motion was unanimously adopted, and Mayor Davis appointed Alderman Joel, Councilmen Flaherty and Parkhill as the committee."

From the Sentinel of April 10, 1884, I clip the following:

"The following resolutions have been presented to Honorable Rodney Wallace by the special committee appointed at the joint convention of the two branches of the City Council, March 25:

To HONORABLE RODNEY WALLACE: FITCHBURG, Mass.

Whereas , the Mayor and City Council of the city of Fitchburg have received and accepted a proposition tendered by Honorable Rodney Wallace of this city, by the terms of which a lot of land situated at the corner of Main street and Newton place is donated to the city of Fitchburg, and a sum not less than forty thousand dollars is to be expended by him, with the advice and approval of the Trustees of the Public Library, within the next two years in erecting a building on said lot, said building to be used for a Free Public Library, Reading Rooms, and an Art Gallery; therefore,

Resolved , That this body desires to voice and place on record the universal appreciation on the part of our citizens of the generosity and public spirit of the honored donor, of the timeliness of the gift, and not less, of the wisdom and foresight manifested in the particular mode by which the city is made the recipient of the munificent present.

Resolved , That we recognize the fact that a gift of this nature will result in incalculable benefits to the community so fortunate as to receive it, enlarging and intensifying, as it does, all the privileges of acquiring information and securing culture which a public library affords; providing in a most accessible and useful form the means by which our young people and those whose daily toil leaves them little leisure for study, may draw to themselves the results of all past experience; and rendering both attractive and easy to all classes of our people opportunities of turning their thoughts from the sterner features of their daily occupations to the amenities of life as presented by specimens of artistic and literary merit.

Resolved , That while sharing in the delight of our citizens in view of the valuable gift thus unexpectedly placed at their service, we congratulate them even more upon the presence among them of men whom Providence has blessed in three-fold measure—with hearts abounding in philanthropic instincts, with material resources ample for the gratification of such impulses, and with that rarer gift than either, the judgment requisite to secure for their donations the widest and most permanent range of influence.

Resolved , That we cannot resist the inclination to felicitate our honored benefactor upon the deep and abiding joy which must be the most adequate reward for this expression of his good will toward our city—the joy arising from the knowledge that every home within our corporate limits will enter into the enjoyment of his gift and that not a few of our youth will be allured from scenes of degrading and immoral pleasure by the presence in a most convenient location of a beautiful edifice within which are at their disposal the graces of art and the riches of literature.

Resolved , That the distinguished giver by this gift, the most valuable ever received by this community at one time from a single citizen, has "erected a monument more enduring than bronze and loftier than the regal structure of the pyramids" in the establishment of a lasting sense of gratitude within the hearts of his appreciative fellow citizens.

Although $40,000 is the lowest limit named, it should be said that the cost of the noble pile will far exceed that sum. It was a generous and princely act for which he will be held in lasting and greatful memory. He will leave behind him a monument which will forever identify his name with the intellectual and moral culture of all classes of the citizens of Fitchburg.

On the seventh of April, the Trustees of the Public Library took appropriate action on the gift of Mr. Wallace. The following account appeared in the Sentinel of April 8:

"At a meeting of the Trustees of the Public Library, Monday evening, the board adopted the following resolution, offered by Henry A. Willis, and on motion of Rev. P.J. Garrigan it was voted to enter the same on their records, request the daily papers of the city to publish the same, and that Rev. P.J. Garrigan, Henry A. Willis and L.H. Bradford be appointed a committee to present the action of the board to Mr. Wallace:

Resolved , That we have heard with great satisfaction of the proposed gift by Honorable Rodney Wallace of land and a building for the use of the Public Library, thus providing for a want long felt by the Trustees, viz: facilities for making the Library fully available to the people of the city, which it never could be in its present confined quarters; that we will fully co-operate with the generous donor in any manner desired by him in carrying out the details of his proposed undertaking; and that we desire here to place upon our records our keen appreciation of the generous spirit which has moved him to tender this munificent gift."