Munroe worked with other prominent members of Concord to form a board of trustees that would provide financial backing for the library.

Building plans were commissioned by Boston firm Snell & Gregerson.

In March 1885, the Concord Free Library was the first institution to ban Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and a number of New England newspapers applauded their condemnation: the Daily Advertiser (Boston), the Daily Republican (Springfield, MA), and the Freeman (Concord, MA).

But many criticized or mocked the library's decision, and as a number of contemporaries and Twain himself noted, the ban contributed to the novel's publicity and helped its sales.

[3] The Fowler branch of the Concord Free Public Library, designed by architect Harry Little, was dedicated on May 18, 1930.