Manchester City Library

The Winchell Room now has brand new flooring, and the room is once again open for library programs.

In the 1980s, the former Periodical Room became the Winchell Room and the Library Foundation furnished the room with a kitchen and made it a multi-purpose room for programs and training. But, why name it the Winchell Room? After all, this is the Carpenter Memorial Building, named for Elenora Blood Carpenter, late wife of philanthropist Frank Pierce Carpenter.

The room was named for Miss F. Mabel Winchell, city librarian from 1902 through 1936. Under her direction, the books from the old Franklin street library were moved to the new Carpenter Memorial Building on Pine Street in 1914. The library collection grew and new rules conforming to modern ideas were adopted. During her tenure, the typewriter, telephone, and charging system were installed, a janitor and policeman were hired, the “closed book shelves” were opened to the patrons, the age limit for children was abolished and story hours began. She kept the library alive during WWI and the Depression.

Miss Winchell held many offices and was active in library and literary organizations: the American
Library Association, the National Education Association, the New Hampshire Library Association, and the Public Library Commission. She was an advocate for proper funding of libraries and wrote the standards for certification of all New Hampshire libraries. She brought our library and librarianship into the Twentieth Century.

Miss Winchell traveled abroad extensively and once made the remark that due to her many duties she rarely had time to read. Her life was the library and the staff her “library family”.

from the latest edition of MCL Notes.