
The Derby Neck Library in Derby, Connecticut, is a beautiful example of an early 20th century library and one of a few Carnegie libraries in the state. The beginnings of the library began in 1897, when Wilbur F. Osborne and his wife, Ellen Davis Osborne, who lived at the nearby Osborne Farm, donated $50 to the nearby school to begin a small library in the building. After years of growth, Wilbur Fisk Osborne, requested funds from Andrew Carnegie, who was donating money to communities all across the country for such purposes, to build a new library for Derby Neck. In 1906, Carnegie donated $3,400 to the community, and planning began on the building. Sadly, Osborne died around the time the library opened in 1907. The building was designed in the Classical Revival style by architect, Henry Killam Murphy of Connecticut. Osborne’s daughter, Frances Osborne Kellogg, who inherited her father’s farmhouse nearby, directed the library until her death in 1956. The building was expanded in 1972 and again in 1999.