The library was established on paper in 1887 by Stephen Gordon Nash, whose childhood home had been home for a time to a private subscription library founded in 1818. Nash died in 1894, having purchased land for the library building, but made no further steps toward creating the institution. In his will, he dedicated $10,000 for the construction of a building, and left the residue of his estate as an endowment for its maintenance. The building was erected in 1895 to a design by James E. Fuller of Fuller & Delano, architects based in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was the first purpose-built library building in Belknap County.
