Buildings of New England

Built in 1872, the Elizabeth Taber Library and Natural History Museum was the first of a number of philanthropic gifts to the town of Marion by Elizabeth Sprague Pitcher Taber (1791-1888), a wealthy widow and resident. This stunning Italianate style library and museum was funded following over $20,000 in donations to Marion for the design, construction and furnishing of a new library in town, that would also house a natural history museum for the advancement of education. By the late 1870s, the Taber Library and Natural History Museum had become a key component of the Tabor Academy campus, founded just years later. The structure, like the Tabor Academy building and Tabor Hall, was designed in the Italianate style and features a dentiled pediment on the facade, an octagonal cupola with balustrade at the roof which is adorned by oculus windows, and an ornate portico supported by fluted Corinthian columns. The building remains as Marion’s Public Library with its Natural History Museum on the second floor