"Cultivated leisure is the aim of man." ~Oscar Wilde~
Ahh, the pride and joy of the house! This two-level cedar-finished gem is where Zachariah spent most of his time. In 1822, a small fire damaged his Captain's Study, where most of his books and old maps were kept. He resolved to build this grand library with as many safety amenities as he could afford, and this was the first room to feature electric lighting, though that wouldn't be until 1882. Family members and staff alike were encouraged to peruse the titles and lose themselves completely in the timeless classics (RLS's Treasure Island becoming a family favorite!).
One young man, a visiting lawyer from Portsmouth took that invitation a little too literally one evening in 1911. It seems that he managed to get himself lost among the endless rows and stacks and was not seen for a week! When asked about his disappearance, the fellow, who was a dreadful sight, began babbling about some secret passage and an underground maze populated by grotesque homicidal freaks!
Ethel Carter, unable to calm the lawyer, discreetly summoned a maid, who soon returned with a pair of orderlies from the nearby Arkham Lunatic Asylum. Still raving about subterranean monsters and torture chambers, the man had to be dragged from the Mansion and institutionalized. As far as the records show, he was never discharged.
Anyway, speaking of secret passages and hidden panels, this room has several of both, if you know where to look...
Here's one that tipplers in the Twenties really found useful.
During Prohibition, an era of great fortune for the Carter family, this false paneling concealed a fully stocked bar! "Let it never be said," Libby Carter was once heard to remark, "that Puritan politics had gotten the better of Carter hospitality!"
Why not help yourself to a drink, choose a
book from the shelf and relax for a while?
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You can go north to see the Guest wing, and west will take you
into the Den. Go up the stairs here to see the second level of the Library.
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