Osterville Village Library

This tall clock was built by Walter Durfree of Boston in 1870. It was given to the library by Mrs. Holbrook R. Davis of Osterville.

When we visited Osterville on a sunny May day we were amazed. For a time, it sat at the top of the rankings of Massachusetts libraries. It’s a beautiful place and has access to community funding - in the form of naming rights - that other towns might not have access to at quite the same degree. (We’re talking naming rights that start in the low- to mid-six figures.)   

Osterville was the first library we noticed what we came to realize was a prevalence of grandfather clocks in libraries.

As we’ve visited more and more libraries, the bloom somewhat faded from the rose that was Osterville. The fact that it has no dedicated study rooms, for example, was something we ignored at the time. That said, the library is still rated a very strong 4.55, which puts it in a tie with Newton, Millis, and Cambridge for fourth place at the moment.

If you find yourself tooling around the Cape, the Osterville library is definitely worth a visit.