The Pierpont Block, on Howe Avenue in Shelton, is an impressively large Richardsonian Romanesque building, built in 1893. It was named for J. P. Morgan, one of the structure’s original investors. The Pierpont Block once contained Arcanum Hall, a hall for public gatherings, and also the public library, before it moved to a new building in 1894. The Pierpont Block was restored (pdf) in the early 1980s.
David Wells Plumb was a successful manufacturer in Birmingham (Derby) and Ansonia, who later settled in Shelton. In 1892, he led a committee of citizens which established a free public library, which opened the following year on the second floor of the Pierpont Block. D.W. Plumb then planned to erect a dedicated library building, but died before he could undertake the project or include funds for it in his will. His brother Horace, a Bridgeport businessman, decided to honor his brother’s wishes and financed the building of the library. Named the Plumb Memorial Library in honor of his brother, it was completed in 1894 on land donated by Plumb’s widow, Louise, next to their family home. The architect for the Richardsonian Romanesque structure was Charles T. Beardsley, Jr. of Bridgeport. A modern addition to the library was constructed in 1974.
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