Library Building Fundraiser
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As a partner of the Hull Public Library, you help support one of the most beloved and successful institutions in our Town. The Library provides equal opportunity and access to all and is the foundation of our community.
Even during these times of continued budget reductions, we envision a library that will provide outstanding services and programs to a diverse, 21st century community.
Our goal is to provide the best selection of books and multi-media to help our families grow & learn, in a open, modern facility.
We envision an attractive, functional library that is technologically advanced and abundantly supplied with books and materials. We envision a library that focuses on children and youth through targeted programs and service, a library where customers can expect to receive friendly, individualized service.
Please help us work toward a common goal to serve our community. Your generosity will help people live richer, fuller lives through lifelong learning, which for many, begins at the library.
Share the Vision! Sense of community, community pride, a place to gather and a place to learn.
For more information, please call 781-925-2295.
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Visit this page for News Updates & Special Events for other fun ways to support the Library.
Hull-of-a-Day. The Hull Public Library Foundation and the Trustees of the Hull Public Library invite the community to a parade and festival dubbed “Hull-of-a-Day.” Parade steps off at 10:30 a.m., A St. at Nantasket Ave. Festival runs 12:30 to sunset at the N St. fields and features live music, food, games, exhibits, activities for kids and adults. For details, see related article this edition, call the library at 781 925-2295
Reede readies plan to raise revenue
for new library By Lanny Larason
Tommye Reede came to Hull nearly half-a-century ago as the mother of three and the wife of a radar operator at the military installation on Hog Island, which has since been renamed with the far more appealing moniker, Spinnaker Island.
The Reedes were, and are, among the few African-American families in Hull. Husband Jimmy died at age 57, but Tommye never left Hull. All three children, Joan, Ronald, and Jeffrey, attended Hull schools, and the Reede family has been here longer than most all of us.
Tommye Reede avoids the question of her age, calling it “a non-published number” and rather cleverly declines giving her children’s ages “because if you can do arithmetic, you’d know how old I am.”
In her 45+ years on the peninsula, this Florida native has given much to what has become her home community, currently spearheading the drive [“We are working very hard”] for a new library. On Saturday, June 23, the community is invited by the Hull Public Library to take part in the “Hull-of-a-Day” event she’s heading up “for the purpose of raising awareness and bringing people on board.” She calls it a “family day of celebration for the community of Hull.”
Hull-of-a-Day begins at 10:30 a.m. at A Street with now retired General Richard [Butch] Neal as the grand marshal, moving out Nantasket Ave. to the corner of N St., the proposed site of the new library. Dignitaries marching will include State Rep. Garrett Bradley, State Sen. Robert Hedlund, and town selectmen. During the rest of the day, there will be live music, food, games, exhibits, and activities, with the Pemberton All Stars jammin’ from 4-6 p.m. and a 6:30 p.m. clash of softball giants when the Hull Police meet a team from the US Coast Guard.
It is appropriate and worth mentioning in a warm and fuzzy way that Tommye Reede’s first employment, when her children were of an age to bring an end her “stay at home mom” status, was at the Hull Public Library, part-time. Now, years later, here she is helping to lead the effort to create a better library in a new location. When accomplished, the new library may be her answer to the question, “What are you most proud of?”
For the moment, her answer to that question is the role she played in forming a senior citizens club for the town, which met regularly at Gould Hall of St. Nicholas United Methodist Church in Hull Village: “And we now have the council on aging [Scully Senior Center], but that’s how and where it started and I just will never forget that. That was such a great feeling.”
Tommye Reede is one of those who tend to make things around them a little better. She’s been a member and leader at St. Nicholas Church since she and her family first arrived in Hull all those years ago. She’s been the superintendent of the Sunday School and today is a lay member to the Annual Conference of the New England Methodist Church, as well as a member of the Bishops’ Episcopacy Committee. Despite being consistently involved in various community projects, she’s never considered running for elected office. On that subject she says, “You should never use the word ‘never,’ but I would never. I don’t have the stomach for it.”
She’s been asked. She has declined. She is more comfortable “doing all sorts of things and getting things done” but hastens to add – and with emphasis – “I don’t need to be up front.”
It is understood that this very proud African-American woman will not part with the number indicating the years she’s spent on this Earth. It is, however, understood that they have been years that have seen great attention and focus on the issue of race in America. What has the near half-century in Hull been like for one African-American family?
In the mid ’60s, after the Reedes had moved out of their first home in Hull, another African-American family, she recalls, “had begun to have discussions with the owner and were very interested in buying it. And we woke up one morning and it had burned down.”
Was it set?
“Who knows, but it was certainly strange. It was a difficult time here… particularly for Joan, in school. There were some who were very friendly, but once someone spit in her face on the school bus.”
So, within the four Reede walls, the message became: “No one is better than you, and you’ve got to believe that.” Along with, “It’s not good enough to be good, or as good as. You’d better strive to be better than…”
And the world is the world, even at the little Methodist church in The Village, as the congregation learned during the time when Reede was the Sunday School superintendent. A new family had moved to Hull, just around the corner from the Reedes. Neighbors. They attended St. Nicholas only briefly, until “they found out I was superintendent. They left the church and made no bones about it, the problem they had with my being a black person and in that church.”
These events took place an approximate 40 years ago. And, it’s probably valid to point out that things today are not as they were then. Today, she says, “It’s more subtle. Today if a black enters into an all white group, there isn’t any hostility; it’s more a kind of reticence because people don’t know what to say or how to act. But, of course, there are those – still –who don’t like blacks, don’t like Asians, just don’t like, for whatever reasons…”
There is amusement in her voice, recalling having recently heard it said that, “Hull has no problem with race.” Asked if any of those expressing the opinion were African-American, there’s a discernable chuckle in the voice: “No.”
Looking back over that near half-century, Tommye Reede asks the rhetorical question: “Was there hostility? Oh, absolutely! Let’s put it this way, it wasn’t so hostile that I felt I had to leave.”
She and two of three of the children who came here in the way back of 1961 remain in Hull.
A GOOD ‘REEDE’ – Hull Village resident Tommye Reede has been involved in good works in Hull since she moved to town in 1961. Her latest effort is to help build a new library at the corner of N St. and Nantasket Ave. [Roger Jackson photo]
