Prospect Public Library – Meeting Place (1905)

I have just completed a building index (by address) for the buildings on this site that are in the Town of Prospect. The most recent entry for Prospect is today’s building, the former Prospect Public Library, which is constructed of fieldstone and was erected in 1905. Earlier private circulating libraries (the Cheshire Mountain Library and the Oxford Circulating Library) had existed in the community even before the incorporation of Prospect as a town in 1827. The Library Association was organized in 1886 and its books were first located at the home of its first librarian, Sarah Tallmadge, and then in the vestry of the Congregational Church. Efforts for the construction of a free public library led to the erection of the 1905 building, designed by F. E. Walters of Waterbury. The principle donors for the library were the Tuttle family of Naugatuck, descendants of Eben Clark Tuttle (1806-1873) who had begun manufacturing hoes in Prospect before moving to Naugatuck in 1851. The family also funded landscaping of the grounds around the building on Prospect Green. A new library building was erected in 1991 on the former site of the Petrauskas farm at 17 Center Street. The former library, located at 30 Center Street, was renamed the Meeting Place and is used for community purposes.