Goodrich Memorial Library

The Goodrich Memorial Library is a public library in Newport, Orleans County, Vermont. It is the largest and only one of two full-time libraries in the county. It is located at 202 Main Street in downtown Newport, in a Romanesque building constructed in 1899.

Goodrich Memorial Library
Location202 Main St., Newport, Vermont  United States
Coordinates44°56′9.24″N 72°12′37.44″W
Built1899 (1899)
ArchitectWilliam Storey
Architectural style"Romanesque, Queen Anne"
Part ofNewport Downtown Historic District (ID06000898)
NRHP reference No.83004228[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPNovember 23, 1983
Designated CPSeptember 28, 2006

History

Converse Goodhue Goodrich and his wife, Almira, donated money for the construction of a free library. The land was worth $6000, the building $20,000. Construction was started in 1898. It dedicated on September 1, 1899.[2] Architect William Storey designed the building.[3]

The stock used to fund the operations of the library failed during the depression in 1933. This forced the library to enlist public support.[2]

It opened with 6500 books.[2]

In November 1983, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.[1]

Administration

The library budget for 2008 is $160,550. Newport city contributes $99,000 of this amount.[4]

Facilities

There are fireplaces fashioned of colored brick, rooms finished in red birch, Georgia pine, cypress, native spruce, Swanton red marble, with furnishings in quartered oak.[2]

The upstairs hall consists of an art room, decorated more or less in period style, a long hall for meetings, an office, and a reading room. There are several old paintings on display in the art room, and a display case of postcards and paraphernalia from Newport's history.

Perhaps most noteworthy is the floor-to-ceiling wall of glass cases that house a variety of stuffed animals and natural curiosities. These include an alligator shot in Florida in the 1900s, an ostrich egg, and a flying squirrel found in Vermont. As they were originally preserved with mercury, they can only be handled and cared for by trained professionals.[2]

gollark: Hazardous flammable bees.
gollark: Expose a man to apiopyrohazards and you will also keep him conveniently warm.
gollark: > Give a spider a fly, and you are considered a god. A man who feeds the less fortunate. Teach a spider to fly and suddenly you are Satan.
gollark: I have obtained https://xn--u4haaaa.tk/. The DNS fairies are propagating it now.
gollark: Or not in the background, but mostly in the background.

See also

Footnotes
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. History of the Goodrich Library Archived 2012-10-29 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "The Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance". vmga.org. Archived from the original on 2008-05-09. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  4. Annual City & School Report, City of Newport, Vermont. Memphremagog Press, Inc., Newport, Vermont. 2007.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.