Library design

Morrill Memorial Library // 1896

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One of the best parts about New England is the diversity of the architecture and history of local public libraries. The Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts, was erected by George H. Morrill in memory of his daughter Sarah Bond Morrill, who apparently died in 1895 of Typhoid Fever at the age of 22. George Morrill made his fortune as one of the largest producers of printing inks in America. The business was founded by Samuel Morrill, father of George H. Morrill in 1845 in Andover, but in 1856, he moved the works to South Dedham (present-day Norwood). The company grew rapidly and factories were built in Norwood and expanded to meet increasing operations. Mr. Morrill built a massive estate in Norwood (no longer extant) and also houses for his family members nearby to create a small enclave for the family. One of the lots on Walpole Street was utilized for a memorial library in honor of his late daughter. Architect Joseph Neal, who originally worked for Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge in Boston, designed the Richardsonian Romanesque library constructed of rough-faced granite blocks with a red terracotta tile roof above. The main entrance was deeply recessed within a great Assyrian arch typical of an arch-type that was a hallmark of the public and ecclesiastical buildings of Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson during the 1870’s and 1880’s, but has since been enclosed by a vestibule, somewhat diminishing the original entry. The library was originally cruciform in plan but one-story additions constructed in the 1960s, on either side of the original facade have altered its original volume, but at least they are of a similar material. The library is one of the more unique in the Boston area and a testament to a father’s love to their children.

Weare Public Library // 1926

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The Colonial Revival style Weare Public Library was built in 1926, being the second purpose-built library building for the town of Weare, New Hampshire. After the Neo-Classical style Stone Memorial Building was taken over as town offices following a fire of the old town hall, local resident Eben Paige saw the need for a new designated library building. Upon his death in 1923, he left his entire estate, over $30,000, to the town to build a new free library. The Boston architectural firm of Kreider and Peterson were selected to design the building, which is still in use today.

Blue Hill Public Library //1938

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Some small town libraries really pack an architectural punch! Blue Hill had long had a public library building, which eventually outgrew its limited space in the 1895 Town Hall building. During the mid-late 1930s, in the depths of the Great Depression, plans began for a new library. Adelaide Pearson, who had moved to Blue Hill in 1928, took on the formidable task. She was described as “a small woman who got things done” and had a vision for a library that was an integral part of the community, serving more than as a place to store and retrieve books. To fulfill that dream, she organized a fundraising campaign to buy a vacant lot in town. Local pledges came in ranging from 25 cents to “one dollar or a day’s work.” With the help of librarian Anne Hinckley, Adelaide Pearson petitioned the federal government for funds from the Public Works Administration, part of the New Deal program. At last, in March of 1940, the Colonial Revival style library building designed by Bunker and Savage Architects of Augusta opened its doors. The library has been a centerpiece of life in the coastal town of Blue Hill ever since.

Dr. Henry Janes House – Waterbury Municipal Center // c.1890

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Probably best known for being in charge of all the military hospitals in the Gettysburg area after the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, Waterbury, Vermont native, Dr. Henry Janes (1832-1915) had a decorated career and gave much to his country and hometown. Janes attended local schools before enrolling at St. Johnsbury Academy, later graduating from New York City’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1855. After a few years working in NY and MA, he moved back to Waterbury to take up a private practice. This was disrupted by the Civil War where he was a major surgeon on the front lines and had over 250 surgeons under his command. After returning home from the war, Dr. Janes was involved in politics and business, and had a home built in town. According to local historians, this present home of Janes was built in 1890, but it definitely could date to the 1870s with Stick style features. Upon his death, the Dr. Janes home was gifted to the town for use as a public library. When Tropical Storm Irene hit the region in 2011, the town offices were destroyed and Vermont Integrated Architecture was hired to expand the Janes House adding space for town offices, meeting space, a modern library and to reconfigure the historic home for the Waterbury Historical Society. Everything about this is perfect, down to the paint colors!

Gregg Free Library // 1907

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The Wilton Public and Gregg Free Library is the public library for the town of Wilton, New Hampshire and is among the town’s most grand architectural designs. The library was the gift of David Almus Gregg (1841-1928), a native of Wilton who owned a successful building parts business in Nashua manufacturing doors, window blinds, and window sashes with his father, David Sr., who lived in the home featured previously. Gregg was significantly involved in the design and construction of the building, providing the highest quality building materials and contractors to the project, which was estimated to cost $100,000 when completed in 1907. The architectural firm of McLean and Wright was commissioned to design the building, who completed it in the Classical Revival style, like many of their other library designs in New England.

Frederick E. Parlin Memorial Library // 1894

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The Frederick E. Parlin Memorial Library is arguably the most architecturally significant building in the City of Everett, Massachusetts. Constructed of buff brick, sandstone and terracotta, it displays characteristics of the Richardsonian Romanesque style including the main entrance set within a recessed arch at the base of a square tower with arched openings. In 1892, Albert Norton Parlin, a local businessman, donated to the City of Everett the Pickering Estate, his birthplace and familial home, to be torn down and a library erected on the parcel in memory of his son, Frederick E. Parlin, who died in 1890 at the age of eighteen. Albert Parlin gave to the City an additional $5,000 to aid in the building of the Frederick E. Parlin Memorial Library. The original 1894 library as well as a 1911-1912 addition were designed by local architect John Calvin Spofford who positioned the building to face a small triangular park. By the 1940’s, the building was outgrown, but it wasn’t until 1982 that a plan was set in motion to renovate the original building and to construct an addition. Childs, Bertman, Tseckares was chosen to draw up the architectural plans, and ground was finally broken in the spring of 1990. With construction of the new addition, the building is almost three times its original size and handicapped accessible, all with an appropriate, Post-Modern design.

Gardiner Public Library // 1881

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Possibly my favorite building type, the local town library buildings of New England, always amaze me with their small scale, yet architectural variety and intrigue. The library in Gardiner, Maine is no exception! This library building was constructed in 1881 from plans by Henry Richards, who was actually born in town in 1848. Henry graduated from Harvard in 1869, and soon after, took a post-graduate course in architecture at MIT. After completing schooling, he was a draftsman with Ware and Van Brunt. Soon after, he was a draftsman with Peabody and Stearns from 1872 to 1876, and then practiced architecture briefly on his own in Boston. During this time he married Laura Elizabeth Howe, daughter of Samuel Gridley and Julia Ward Howe. They moved to Gardiner, Maine and settled in a Federal house (featured previously), to learn more about Laura Richards and their house, check out the last post. Henry lived to be 100 years old! The library building is Queen Anne and Romanesque in style with a round corner tower with conical roof, brownstone and brick construction, and a stained glass ocular window with ogee parapet at the gable end roof. The small local library was added onto numerous times to hold a growing collection which includes works from Laura E. Richards, and Edwin Arlington Robinson, both Pulitzer Prize winning authors who lived in town.

Langdon Library // 1892

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Langdon Library in Newington, NH, was established through the generosity of Woodbury Langdon of New York City, a summer resident of Fox Point in town. In 1892 Langdon offered to donate 2,000 books to the Town of Newington, if suitable provisions could be made for their care and circulation. The Town voted to erect a library at town meeting in 1892 and accepted the offer. Portsmouth architect William Allyn Ashe furnished designs for the building which reads as a pleasing, symmetrical Romanesque Revival building. The structure was outgrown and needed repairs in 2013, and hired the firm of Lavallee Brensinger Architects to oversee the redesign, which restored the 1892 building. The resulting project tripled the usable square footage of the library, and the new wing allows the library to remain quaint and the main focus.

Acton Memorial Library // 1889

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In 1888, William Allan Wilde, a Boston publisher who grew up in Acton, purchased land on Main Street to be used as the site for a new memorial library, in “memory of those brave and patriotic men of Acton who so freely gave Time, Strength and Health, and many of them their Lives in the war of the Rebellion, 1861-65.” The former Fletcher Homestead which was located here, was moved to a nearby street. The Richardsonian Romanesque building was designed by the Boston architectural firm of Hartwell and Richardson. The building displays traditional Romanesque materials with its brick wall surfaces, brownstone and terra cotta trim and detailing, and slate roof. The large Syrian arched entry is a hallmark in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, which works extremely well with this design.

Gilbert A. Davis Memorial Library // 1899

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Reading Vermont’s public library building was built in 1899, by local resident Gilbert A. Davis (1835-1919). The building’s funds were furnished by Mr. Davis in his life, likely inspired by Andrew Carnegie’s fund which had libraries built in towns all over the United States. Gilbert Davis worked as a lawyer in Woodstock before moving back to Reading, Vermont to run his own practice. The library he funded is Neo-Classical in design in the form of a Greek Cross with intersecting gable roofs and with a monumental portico in the Ionic Order on the front facade. The charming library building is well-preseved and an excellent example of Vermonts beautiful small-town libraries.

Richards Free Library // 1899

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Designed by Boston architect, James Templeton Kelley, the Richards Free Library (originally the Seth Richards House) is an outstanding example of the Colonial Revival style, in a region where such expressions of opulence are relatively rare. Located on Main Street in Newport, NH, the house was built during a period of great prosperity by one of Newport’s wealthiest citizens. Richards was one of the few in the area able to afford the services of a metropolitan architect for his own home. The family occupied the home until the 1960s when Louise Richards Rollins, offered the family home on Main Street for the to the town for use as a library in 1962. The first floor rooms were renovated and equipped as a library and Ms. Rollins continued to live on the second floor of the library until her death.

Pequot Library // 1894

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The Pequot Library in Southport, Connecticut was founded in 1889 by Virginia Marquand Monroe and her husband Elbert B. Monroe. The library, designed by noted New York City architect Robert H. Robertson, opened to the public in March 1894. The building is Romanesque Revival in style in a granite sandstone construction. There is an expansive roof area topped with red tile and hipped dormers; an arcaded entrance porch with three arched openings serves as the focal point of the front facade. It was Mrs. Monroe’s intention that Pequot be as “free as air to all”, which it remains as to this day.

Abbott Memorial Library // 1905

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Gifted to the town of Pomfret by Ira Abbott, the Abbott Memorial Library is one of the most stunning little libraries in the State of Vermont. Given to his hometown as a memorial to his parents by Ira Abbott, who was at that time a State Supreme Court justice in the territory of New Mexico. Its architect, Henry M. Francis, used diverse materials — brick, granite, fieldstone, red birch, and pre-stressed concrete, to design the eclectic building. Capped with a red slate roof with terra cotta ridge tiles, the building stands out as one of the most unique buildings in the state and has been extremely well-maintained through its public-privately funded Commission.