Today’s Bangor (Maine) Daily News has the stunning news that the Swan’s Island Library in Maine has burned to the ground.

More than 100 years worth of history went up in flames along with an island institution early Thursday morning. Candis Joyce, the library’s director, said the library contained more than 10,000 books. Historical items included records from local quarries, weather data and ferry logs, she said.

“It just goes on and on and on,” Joyce said of the items lost in the fire. “We really need to get this back. It had become a community center.”

Maili Bailey said the building can be replaced, and island residents can go about putting together another historical collection, but that neither will ever compare to what was destroyed Thursday morning.

“People adored it,” Bailey said of the library. “It breaks our hearts.”

Via Genealogy Bank and Bangor News.