Annie Ray Thayer, born in 1856, was the daughter of Joseph G. Ray and Emily Rockwood Ray. Her home was the center of the social scene in Franklin, Massachusetts at the turn of the twentieth century.

 

Thayer donated several buildings to the Town of Franklin in honor of her parents. She and her sister, Lydia Ray Pierce, donated the Ray Memorial Library in 1904 and the Ray School in 1905. In 1924, she and her husband, Adelbert Thayer, donated the Joseph G. Ray Fire Station. The tower was later used in the 1950s by Franklin’s Skyward Patrol to keep watch for Soviet attack.

 

Annie Ray Thayer died on February 19, 1944.