Historic Buildings of Connecticut - Exploring the Nutmeg State One Building at a Time

Brainerd Memorial Library (1908)

Haddam had a number of early library associations before a permanent library building was dedicated in 1908. The earliest dated back to 1793. It folded in 1808, but was succeeded by the Haddam Library Association in 1818. This library was divided in two in 1820, one half located at the northern end of Middlesex turnpike and the other at the southern end. This library was restarted in 1896 and ten years later Cyprian Strong Brainerd, Jr., a native of Haddam Neck who became a lawyer in New York City, gave funds for a library building. It was built at 920 Saybrook Road on land donated by Judge Ephraim P. Arnold, the grandson of Joseph and Thankful Arnold. The Brainerd Memorial Library was designed by McLean and Wright, a Boston architectural firm. An addition was completed in 1997. (more…)

Mystic & Noank Library (1894)

In 1891, Captain Elihu Spicer, a wealthy ship captain of Mystic and Brooklyn, NY, announced that he would construct a library for the Groton communities of Mystic and Noank. Located on the corner of West Main and Elm Streets in West Mystic, the completed Mystic & Noank Library was dedicated in January of 1894. Capt. Spicer did not live to see the opening, having died the year before. The Library‘s architect was William Bigelow of New York (a former partner of McKim and Mead) and the construction was supervised by Spicer’s own architect, William Higginson. When built, the library collection was on the second floor and a meeting room occupied the first floor; today both floors and a 1990s addition to the building are used as library space. Two relief busts, representing Literature and Art, are featured on the front facade of the Library.

Booth & Dimock Memorial Library (1913)

The library association in Coventry was formed in 1880. With help from a donation (requiring a matching sum from the town) from a wealthy California doctor, H. G. Cogswell, who had been cared for as a homeless 10-year-old by a woman from Coventry, the Library found a home in 1894 in a small former-Post Office building. The current library, known as the Booth & Dimock Memorial Library, was built in 1912-1913. Construction was funded by a bequest from Henry Dimock, a New York lawyer born in South Coventry, in memory of his grandfather, Rev. Chauncey Booth, minister of Coventry’s First Congregational Church, and of his father, Dr. Timothy Dimock. The old Greek Revival-style Thomas Clark Homestead, which had previously stood on the property, was torn down in 1911, amid much controversy, to make way for the new library. The Georgian Revival library building was designed by James M. Darrach of New York. A modern addition was constructed in 1987-1989, with a duplicate of the architecture of the old front facade being reproduced on the side of the building facing the expanded parking lot.

Deep River Public Library (1881)

Deep River’s town library was formed in 1900 and was at first located in a room in the Town Hall. Although plans had been made at various times to construct a library building, by the 1930s this had still not been done. Eventually, the 1881 home of Richard Spencer, who had been a President of the Deep River National Bank and a state senator, was purchased by the Library Association and donated to the town as a gift. The Queen Anne/Stick Style House, located on the corner of Main and Village Streets, was renovated and modified to become a library, under the direction of Harvey J. Brooks. The Deep River Public Library opened in 1933, with a new addition being constructed in 1995.

Simsbury Free Library (1890)

The Simsbury Free Library began on the second floor of the Hopmeadow District School in 1874. Amos Richards Eno, the Simsbury-born Real-Estate Tycoon, had given the Library a large endowment and later provided the land and funds for the construction of a library building. Built in 1890, the Library was designed by Melvin H. Hapgood of Hartford in the Colonial Revival style. Eno’s daughter, Antoinette Eno Wood, donated the rear addition of 1924. The Simsbury Public Library was established in 1986 in a new building and the old Simsbury Free Library building was renovated and now contains the Simsbury Genealogical and Historical Research Library and the William Phelps Eno Memorial Center.

New London Public Library (1892)

The New London whaling merchant, Henry Philemon Haven, who died in 1876, left a bequest to be used for charitable purposes. His trustees used the funds to build a library, completed in 1892 and designed by the firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge (H.H. Richardson‘s successor firm). The architects sent George Warren Cole, who eventually established his own firm in the city, to New London to supervise three simultaneous projects: the Library, Williams Memorial Institute and Nathan Hale School. The Richardsonian Romanesque Public Library of New London building features a design similar to the libraries designed by Richardson and contrasts a Milford granite construction with brownstone trim.

Ansonia Library (1892)

We begin June with libraries, as we declare this week to be Library Week at Historic Buildings of Connecticut! Our first library is the Ansonia Library, designed by the architect George Keller, who was responsible for many other interesting buildings in the state. Caroline Phelps Stokes, granddaughter of Anson Greene Phelps, who founded Ansonia, donated the library, buying the land for it on the corner of South Cliff Street and Cottage Avenue. She traveled from New York to supervise the construction of the building, which utilized Longmeadow freestone with a foundation of granite from Ansonia. In a gable, above the library’s entryway, is a relief sculpture of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and knowledge. The Ansonia Library was completed in 1892, but did not open its doors until 1896, because the town government was initially reluctant to provide the $1,500 per year required for the library’s operating expenses.