The Belfast Free Library opened in May 1886. Prior to the building’s construction, the city had been served first by the short-lived Belfast Library Society and a small circulating library run by local newspaper publishers. The $20,000 combined bequests of funds for a library by Belfast residents Paul Hazeltine and Nathaniel Wilson led to the establishment of the Belfast Free Library by the Maine State Legislature on February 3, 1887. J. Munchwitz of New York developed plans for the building sited on the former Robert Miller homestead on High Street, with James Pottle leading the building process. When the library opened the following year, Elizabeth Pond served as its first librarian, overseeing a library of 14,000 volumes.

The Methodist Church on Spring Street is pictured behind the library in this postcard. The first stone of the Methodist Church in Belfast was placed in 1858 with construction completed the following year. The church was financed primarily through the fundraising efforts of Reverend William J. Wilson and replaced the small chapel at the corner of Miller and Cross Streets that had previously been used for services.

The caption reads, "Belfast Public Library and Methodist Church, Belfast, Maine."

The Tichnor Brothers printing company published this type of postcard circa 1938.