CLEAVES

The records of the library and the Cumberland Bar Association were destroyed in the great Portland fire of 1866. In November of that year Mrs. James Greenleaf presented to the association, in memory of her husband, the law library of his father, Simon Greenleaf. It was voted that "the new library which we intend to raise on the ashes of the old and of which foundations has thus been broadly laid be called the Greenleaf Law Library" and was organized as a separate entity apart from the bar association.. In 1877 the library was given many rare volumes in the will of Francis O.J. Smith. After the building of the old city hall in 1868, the library occupied rooms on the second floor over the main entrance... A fire in 1908 destroyed that building. In 1909 the library moved into the present county courthouse in rooms provided for it. The bank holiday in 1932 depleted the operating funds of Greenleaf Law Library. In the Federal Courthouse however, was an seldom used library owned by the bar..

Primary location: Portland United States