History:
The Ellsworth Public Library is located on the banks of the Union River in downtown Ellsworth, Maine. The Federalist-style building built in 1817 for Colonel Meltiah Jordan is listed on the National Register of Historic Houses, and is commonly known as the Tisdale House after Seth Tisdale, one of its illustrious owners. The house has been a public library since 1897 when George Nixon Black gave the remodeled building to the City of Ellsworth with the enduring condition "That the premises conveyed shall be always used for a public library".
A three-story addition, designed by Bingham & Woodward and financed by a bond issued by the City of Ellsworth, was completed in 1991. This addition houses adult fiction and non-fiction stacks, periodicals, reference shelving, several reading areas, and on the lower level, a meeting room with adjacent kitchen, public rest rooms, and storage and mechanical rooms.
