WEST PARIS – Not many may know why the Arthur Mann Memorial Library appears to be a miniature castle.

Next to the unadorned wooden homes in this valley town, the library resides somewhat majestically, if a bit incongruously, on Main Street like a squat palace, regal and stony.

Librarian Patty Makley hopes that the hubbub generated over the little library turning 80, and an ambitious expansion plan, will lead to some clues about what character might have had the whimsy for such a building.

“I have never heard an explanation,” Makley said. She has been the librarian since June 2005.

Beverly Stevens, a member of the group Friends of the Library, hypothesized that the library’s founders may have wanted to take advantage of local material. The castle was built with fieldstone gathered from pastures in West Paris.

It was completed in 1926, after West Paris mill owner Lewis M. Mann bequeathed a plot of land and $5,000 to the town for a library in memory of his son Arthur, who died young. His son Edwin donated another $5,000 to finish the project.

According to a short history of the town by Mrs. S.T. White (an undated yellowed article pulled from a sleeve in a notebook pulled from a top shelf in the library), an architect was responsible for the library design.

“The library is built of broken rock designed by Gibbs and Pulsifer, of Lewiston, who drafted the plan according to a fancy of Mr. Pulsifer and it has the resemblance of an old castle,” White wrote.

“It was a vision,” Stevens said.

Earle Shettleworth, director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, shed some light on the mystery.

“This was a period when the emphasis on architectural design was eclecticism,” Shettleworth said. Architects during the early 20th century drew from a variety of romantic styles for inspiration, he said.

Traditionally a working-class mill town, West Paris does not have the usual Main Street showoffs, like Victorian mansions or Georgian townhouses, found in some other Maine downtowns. But while the library seems a touch odd for understated West Paris, in a larger context, it was in vogue.

“At the same time that little stone building was being built in West Paris, universities like Yale and Duke were building big libraries of stone Gothic revival buildings,” Shettleworth said.

Partly because of its individuality, the tiny library and its fancy stone tower have inspired much affection from townspeople.

“It’s really great,” Donna DiConzo, the assistant town clerk said. “And the whole town feels as I do. It’s one of our gems.”

“I think everybody in town feels incredibly attached to the castle,” Town Manager Don Woodbury said. “It’s just one of the aspects in downtown West Paris they cherish.”

But it’s too small, library members say. Board members are trying to raise money and find grants to pay for an addition that will increase the 1,378 feet to 1,600 feet and cost $300,000. So far, they have raised about $30,000, Makley said.

The crowded library contains 10,000 books and other items for lending. The expansion will allow the library to double its shelf space, add computers, and increase the young adult and children’s sections.

Yet some in town have expressed worries that the charm of the library might be lost in the construction.

“There is concern that the unique style of the library not be degraded during the expansion,” Woodbury said.

Makley assured that the library has hired a firm from Portland that specializes in buildings with historical significance. She explained that the architect has planned the addition, which will extend behind the library, to sit lower than the existing building and be difficult to see from the street.

“It will not loom over the top of the structure,” Makley said. “Hopefully it will be as charming as ever.”