athenaeum

In the 1800s, the Fairbanks brothers moved to town, earning their fortune through the invention and production of the platform scale; they founded a museum, athenaeum and academy, all operating to this day.

The back of his state-issued S.U.V. is stacked with notebooks filled with ideas and data culled from books and articles and conversations with nearly four hundred experts; it’s a kind of rolling athenaeum.

After Todd Bol’s death, the organization requested that “stewards” — Mr. Bol’s term for the guardians and curators of his little athenaeums — tie a silver or white ribbon around the libraries in his honor.

But Dotty was not at the athenaeum that night.

Besides numerous other places of worship, there are a handsome town hall, athenaeum and museum, art gallery and public library, various assembly rooms, and several recreation grounds.