While her family resided in New York City, where her father was a key man in the Standard Oil Trust, young Millicent Rogers and her sisters and brother had been happy vacation and weekend habitués of the little town of Fairhaven from birth.

With their parents, both of whom were themselves Fairhaven natives—they had spent happy, care-free hours there among relatives and friends, in particular communion with both maternal and paternal grandparents.

When she died at such a young age, her grieving family sought an appropriate means of memorializing her short life.

In the same year she had died, land was acquired and plan were begun to erect in Fairhaven a unique and lavish tribute to the arts, the splendid yet functional Millicent Library.

Within its confines were a sketch of Millicent, a tracing of the Rogers' ancestry, and a copy of the Fairhaven Star carrying a picture of the proposed building.