Digital Division
109 E 4th St
Lyceum Building
est. 1857
In 1856, one year after Northfield’s founding, its new Lyceum Society was established. This was a time of great change in America, with the divisiveness and tensions over the issue of slavery soon to boil over and women's suffrage also at the forefront of sociopolitical discussions after the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention. John North, the founder of Northfield, was passionate about the ideals of abolition and women’s suffrage, and supported the Society as a place for intellectual community discourse on topics of the day like these. To support this mission, he donated land on East 4th Street in April 1857 for a new building to house these town meetings—the Lyceum Building. It still stands today.
Over 160 years later, the Lyceum Building still stands today.
The Society held its last meeting in 1863, and soon after, the Lyceum Building was converted into a reading room in the days before the Carnegie Library was established on Washington Street. After 1885, when the stock of books was temporarily moved into the YMCA Building on Division, the Lyceum came under private ownership, and it has been since, under a variety of proprietors over the years. In 2023, the Street family purchased the aging building, and have since commenced a large restoration project, seeking to return the building’s historic character and grandeur. For more information on the renovation project and on the Lyceum’s history in Northfield, visit its website at www.lyceumbuilding.org.
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