The Dyer Library on Main Street in Saco. LIZ GOTTHELF/Journal Tribune
SACO – The Dyer Library in Saco was closed Tuesday after an alleged break-in at the building on Monday night.
Dyer Library is a public library at 371 Main St. in Saco, next to the Saco Museum.
Library officials announced on the library’s Facebook page on Tuesday morning that the library would be closed for the entire day.
“Regrettably Dyer Library will be closed for Tuesday, September 25th. We are very sorry for the inconvenience,” wrote library officials.
Saco Deputy Police Chief Jack Clements said police received call from a library staff member just before 10 a.m. Tuesday that the library had been burglarized overnight.
Clements said “a miscellaneous amount” of cash was missing and there was minor damage to a few doors at the library.
The alleged burglary is under investigation, he said.
Library staff were unable to be reached for comment. A sign on the door of the library confirmed it was closed for the day.
The library was originally funded by a generous bequest from Olive Dyer in the name of her husband Oliver and the first home of the Dyer Library was created in the basement of Saco City Hall in 1881, according to information from the Dyer Library and Saco Museum website.
Twelve years later in 1893, the building just north of City Hall was constructed as the second home of the library and was designed by Horace G. Wadlin. Funds for construction of the building were provided by bequests from Mrs. John C. Bradbury and George E. Means, and philanthropist Cornelius Sweetser, who left the Dyer Library a $10,000 perpetual maintenance fund, according to the Dyer Library and Saco Museum website.
The Dyer Library moved north to the former home of board President Frank Cutter Deering in 1955, next to the York Institute. In 1974, a new wing was added adjacent to Deering’s huge flat-roofed parlor and the broad corridor and gallery connected to the carriage house providing new offices in what is now known as the Deering Room and Board Room and the Reed’s Children’s Room, which was built with a bequest from former children’s librarian Lillian Reed, according to the library’s website.
In 1976, the Dyer Library and York Institute joined together as the Dyer Library Association and later the York Institute was renamed as the Saco Museum. The museum and library receive about 60 percent of funding from the City of Saco, according to the Dyer Library and Saco Museum website.
— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 780-9015 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.
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