Located down the street from the village common in Strafford, Vermont, the town’s public library building has a history that began with a gift of gratitude. In 1883, Senator Justin Morrill designed and built a building for the town in memory of his mentor, Jedediah Harris, and donated it as a public library. Harris had been Morrill’s partner at the village store, and the library housed the collection created by Harris’s own bequest. The gambrel-roofed building would eventually be outgrown and the town’s library moved into the new Morrill & Harris Memorial Library building when it was completed in 1929. Funding for the building is said to have been set aside in the will of Louise Swan, Senator Morrill’s sister-in-law, for the acquisition of land and building of a library. Built in 1929, the small Classical Revival style library is three bays wide and two bays deep with a pedimented entrance and Doric columns. The building retains much of its original detailing and has been lovingly preserved by the small town for nearly 100 years.
