Zoé Vallé Memorial Library

Founded in 1928, the Zoé Vallé Memorial Library is one of the oldest free community libraries in Canada still operating as it did in the beginning. The house was the home of American summer resident Zoé Vallé Lightfoot from 1903 to 1927, and was donated to the community of Chester by her sister, Isabel Vallé Austen as a free community Library in memory of Zoé. Maintained today by private donations of funds and books, the Library is now just as much a museum as a library, representing early attempts to allow free access to reading materials. The first publicly-funded library was not established in Nova Scotia until 1949, twenty-two years after the opening of the Zoé Vallé Memorial Library. For more on the Library, go to zoevallelibrary.wordpress.com