Rockingham Free Public Library

Last updated
Rockingham Free Public Library
Rockingham1long logo margin.png
Rockingham Public Library, Bellows Falls, Vermont.jpg
Rockingham Free Public Library
43°07′51″N72°26′41″W / 43.1308°N 72.4446°W / 43.1308; -72.4446 Coordinates: 43°07′51″N72°26′41″W / 43.1308°N 72.4446°W / 43.1308; -72.4446
Location Bellows Falls, Vermont
EstablishedNovember 23, 1909 (1909-11-23)
Architect(s) McLean & Wright
Collection
Size44,000 titles
Other information
DirectorIan Graham
Employeesnine
Website rockinghamlibrary.org

Rockingham Free Public Library is one of four Carnegie Libraries in the state of Vermont. [1] The building, in Bellows Falls, Vermont, a village of Rockingham, Vermont, was designed by Boston architects McLean & Wright in Classical Revival style. [2] [3] The Carnegie grant was offered in 1905. The town took a while to decide on allocating matching funds. [4] The library officially opened on November 23, 1909. [3] A children's annex was added to the building in 1929. [5] In 2003 a new entryway and elevator were added for improved accessibility. [5]

Contents

Early history

Prior to this building being built, the Rockingham Free Public Library occupied a room in the lower floor of the town's opera house. [3] Before that, there was a subscription library founded on October 28, 1799, as the Rockingham Library Society. [3] The book collection moved around town occupying a room in the town's first high school, and a local drug store. [4] :596 The town's first public library card was issued in 1888. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bellows Falls, Vermont</span> Village in Vermont, United States

Bellows Falls is an incorporated village located in the town of Rockingham in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,747 at the 2020 census. Bellows Falls is home to the Green Mountain Railroad, a heritage railroad; the annual Roots on the River Festival; and the No Film Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockingham, Vermont</span> Town in Vermont, United States

Rockingham is a town along the Connecticut River in Windham County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,832. Rockingham includes the incorporated villages of Bellows Falls and Saxtons River, as well as a large rural area west of Interstate 91.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saxtons River, Vermont</span> Village in Vermont, United States

Saxtons River is an incorporated village in the town of Rockingham in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 479 at the 2020 census. For over a hundred years, Saxtons River has been the home of Vermont Academy, an independent secondary school. Most of the village is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as Saxtons River Village Historic District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saxtons River</span>

The Saxtons River is a 22.9-mile-long (36.9 km) river in the U.S. state of Vermont, a tributary of the Connecticut River. Its watershed covers 78 square miles (200 km2) and a range in altitude of 1,800 feet (550 m); land use is about 80% forested and 3% agricultural, and the upper river supports wild brook trout and brown trout, while Atlantic salmon occur but are usually limited to the area below Twin Falls on the lower river.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vermont Academy</span> Private boarding and day school in Saxtons River, Vermont, United States

Vermont Academy (VA) is a private, co-educational, college preparatory, boarding and day school in Saxtons River, Vermont, serving students from ninth through twelfth grade, as well as postgraduates. Founded in 1876, the campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Vermont Academy Campus Historic District in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bellows Falls station</span> Railroad station in Bellows Falls, Vermont, US

Bellows Falls station is an Amtrak intercity rail station located in the Bellows Falls village of Rockingham, Vermont, United States. The station is served by the single daily round trip of the Washington, D.C.–St. Albans Vermonter. It has a single side platform adjacent to the single track of the New England Central Railroad mainline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Williams River (Vermont)</span>

The Williams River is a 27.0-mile (43.5 km) river in the US state of Vermont. It is a tributary of the Connecticut River. Its watershed covers 117 square miles; land use is about 80% forested and 4% agricultural, and the upper river supports wild brook trout and brown trout.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockingham Meeting House</span> Historic church in Vermont, United States

The Rockingham Meeting House, also known as Old North Meeting House and First Church in Rockingham, is a historic civic and religious building on Meeting House Road in Rockingham, Vermont, United States. The Meeting House was built between 1787 and 1801 and was originally used for both Congregational church meetings as well as civic and governmental meetings. Church services ceased in 1839 but town meetings continued to be held in it until 1869. It was restored in 1906 and has been preserved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arch Bridge (Bellows Falls)</span> Bridge in Vermont to North Walpole, New Hampshire

The Bellows Falls Arch Bridge was a three-hinged steel through arch bridge over the Connecticut River between Bellows Falls, Vermont and North Walpole, New Hampshire. It was structurally significant as the longest arch bridge in the United States when it was completed in 1905.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Hardware Storehouse</span> United States historic place

The Howard Hardware Storehouse is a historic storage building off Bridge Street in Bellows Falls, Vermont. Built about 1895, it is a surviving reminder of the city's railroad-related economic past, built in a distinctive tetrahedral shape to accommodate nearby railroad lines. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bellows Falls Neighborhood Historic District</span> Historic district in Vermont, United States

The Bellows Falls Neighborhood Historic District encompasses a residential area of the village of Bellows Falls, Vermont. Located south of downtown Bellows Falls, the area has one of the largest concentrations of well-preserved 19th century residences in southern Vermont. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, and enlarged in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockingham Village Historic District</span> Historic district in Vermont, United States

The Rockingham Village Historic District encompasses the traditional village center of the town of Rockingham, Vermont. Settled in the 18th century, the district, located mainly on Meeting House Road off Vermont Route 103, includes a variety of 18th and 19th-century houses, and has been little altered since a fire in 1908. It notably includes the 18th-century National Historic Landmark Rockingham Meeting House. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westminster Terrace Historic District</span> Historic district in Vermont, United States

The Westminster Terrace Historic District encompasses a locally architecturally distinctive residential area on Westminster Terrace in Bellows Falls and Westminster, Vermont. First developed between about 1880 and 1910, the neighborhood has high-quality late 19th-century homes, interspersed with later mid-20th century development. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Williams Street Extension Historic District</span> Historic district in Vermont, United States

The Williams Street Extension Historic District encompasses a locally architecturally distinctive residential area on Williams Street in Bellows Falls, a village of Rockingham, Vermont. Developed between about 1880 and 1930, the neighborhood has a collection of 15 historically significant well-preserved worker housing units. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George H. Guernsey</span> American architect

George H. Guernsey was an American architect from Montpelier, Vermont.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southeast Vermont Transit</span>

Southeast Vermont Transit (SEVT) is a local bus operator serving Windham County, Vermont, southern Windsor County, and parts of southern Bennington County. Three Brattleboro local routes and ten regional routes to the north are branded as Rockingham MOOver; five regional routes and eight ski resort circulator routes to the west are branded as Wilmington MOOver. The agency was formed in July 2015 by the merger of the Deerfield Valley Transit Association (DVTA) and Connecticut River Transit (CRT).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bellows Falls Canal</span>

Bellows Falls Canal is a canal constructed to allow boat traffic to bypass Great Falls on the Connecticut River in Bellows Falls, Vermont. It was constructed by the Bellows Falls Canal Company and was one of the first canals in the United States. It was used for transport, to power mills, and later for hydroelectric power. The Bellows Falls Downtown Historic District includes the canal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westland District Library</span>

The Westland District Library is the public library in Hokitika, on the West Coast of New Zealand. Beginning as the Hokitika Literary Society in 1866, it occupied a Carnegie library building from 1908 as the Hokitika Free Public Library, moving out in 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Falls (Connecticut River)</span>

Great Falls is a waterfall along the Connecticut River between Walpole, New Hampshire, and Bellows Falls, Vermont. It has also been called Bellows Falls, and its Abenaki name is Kitchee Pontegu, which means "great falls". Great Falls became its official name, based on local usage, in 2016. It drops 52 feet (16 m), and the village of Bellows Falls was established next to it, to take advantage of its water power. Previously, the main settlement in town, Rockingham Village, was on a high point of land overlooking the Williams River, with no potential for water power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William H. McLean</span> American architect

William H. McLean was an American architect from Boston, Massachusetts. He is best known for the design of public libraries, many of which he designed as a member of the firm of McLean & Wright.

References

  1. Vermont. Free Public Library Commission (1910). Biennial Report of the Free Public Library Commission of the State of Vermont. p. 59. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  2. "McLean, William H." Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Library History – Rockingham Free Public Library". Rockingham Free Public Library. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  4. 1 2 Hayes, Lyman Simpson (2016-10-23). "History of the town of Rockingham, Vermont, including the villages of Bellows Falls, Saxtons River, Rockingham, Cambridgeport and Bartonsville, 1753-1907, with family genealogies". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  5. 1 2 "Rockingham Free Public Library". New England Carnegies. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  6. Lovell, Frances Stockwell. History of Rockingham. pp. 125–128.