Shelburne Free Public Library

United States historic place


Shelburne Free Public Library
U.S. National Register of Historic Places


42°35′20″N 72°41′19″W / 42.58889°N 72.68861°W / 42.58889; -72.68861
Built	1898 (1898)
Built by	George Burnham
Architectural style	Gothic Revival
NRHP reference No.	16000453 ^[1]
Added to NRHP	July 18, 2016

The Shelburne Free Public Library is one of two public libraries in Shelburne, Massachusetts. It is located at 233 Shelburne Center Road, in an architecturally distinctive 1898 Gothic Revival stone structure built out of local riverstone. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.^[1]

Architecture and history

The Shelburne Free Library stands in the small village of Shelburne Center, just south of Massachusetts Route 2 on the east side of Shelburne Center Road. It is a roughly square 1+1⁄2-story gable-roofed stone structure, built of local stone laid in an uncourse mortared manner. Its main facade is symmetrical, with the main entrance set in a segmented-arch recess whose side and end walls are paneled. Flanking this recess on either side are narrow rectangular windows. The gable rises to a level slightly above that of the main roof, and has small buttresses at the ends. The side walls each have three windows. A single-story addition, built out of similar materials, projects southward from the rear corner.^[2]

The library was founded in 1854 by William and Walter Wells, who established a lending library in one of their homes, and charged an annual fee of $3 for its use. The Wellses amassed a collection of 2,000 books that rivaled that of the Arms Library, a free library established in Shelburne Falls a few years earlier. The library was formally organized in 1895, and the present building's main block was built in 1898. The stones used in its construction were reportedly gathered from all over the rural community and brought to the site, stockpiled over years until a sufficient quantity were accumulated. The addition, built in 1952–53, was also built out of local stone, carefully chosen and laid to match the original.^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
^ ^a ^b "MACRIS inventory record for Shelburne Free Public Library". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2016-08-01.

External links

Shelburne Free Public Library web site

U.S. National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

Topics

Contributing property
Keeper of the Register
Historic district
History of the National Register of Historic Places
National Park Service
Property types

Lists by county

Lists by city

Barnstable County	Barnstable Harwich
Bristol County	Fall River New Bedford Taunton
Essex County	Andover Gloucester Ipswich Lawrence Lynn Methuen Salem
Hampden County	Springfield
Middlesex County	Arlington Cambridge Concord Framingham Lexington Lowell Marlborough Medford Newton Reading Sherborn Somerville Stoneham Wakefield Waltham Weston Winchester
Norfolk County	Brookline Milton Quincy
Suffolk County	Boston northern southern
Worcester County	Southbridge Uxbridge Worcester eastern northwestern southwestern