Gilmanton Iron Works Library

The Gilmanton Iron Works Library is significant under Criterion C, in the area of architecture, as an attractive small library building, notable for its pleasing design and simple but effective ornament, and as the first public library building in Belknap County to use the Colonial Revival style and a symmetrical main block with an entry portico. Built in 1916-1917, according to the plans of Boston architect Willard M. Bacon, the library differed in style and form from its five predecessors and one contemporary in Belknap County. When construction began on the Gilmanton Iron Works, Library, all eleven municipalities in the county had public libraries. But only four municipalities had proper public library buildings, buildings erected especially to house a library. The first public library building, erected in the town of New Hampton in 1895, was followed by library buildings in the towns of Meredith and Centre Harbor, and by two library buildings in the city of Laconia. Another library building was also erected in 1916-1917, in the town of Barnstead. Of these six buildings, four followed the Classical Revival style, while the main Laconia library employed the Romanesque Revival style and the Lakeport branch of the Laconia library used an eclectic blend of early 20th-century styles. The two Laconia buildings are asymmetrical in form and plan, but all four Classical libraries had symmetrical main blocks, three of them being further distinguished by central entry pavilions. The Gilmanton Iron Works Library was the first to turn to the Colonial Revival style and to use a symmetrical main block with an entry portico. In both aspects of its design, the Gilmanton library was prophetic of the three library buildings subsequently built in the county, all of which used the Colonial Revival style and a symmetrical main block with a central entry portico. In style and form, the Gilmanton Iron Works Library marked a significant change in the architectural evolution of the county's libraries. The library is also significant simply as a well-designed building, an attractive small library, with good proportions, a pleasant composition, and attractive ornament. Its notable features include wide clapboarded walls with sillboards, the entry portico, a fine entry frame, large triple windows, a wide cornice, and a broad hip roof, as well as the interior window and door frames, brick fireplace, coved plaster ceilings, and columns, pilasters, and entablatures of the public spaces in the interior.

Before the establishment of public libraries, some Belknap County residents were served by private libraries, notably subscription libraries that were typically open only to their own members. Two such private libraries were founded in Gilmanton in the first years of the 19th century. The Social Library of Gilmanton, incorporated in 1801, was housed at first near the Smith Meetinghouse in the center of the town but was later moved to Gilmanton Iron Works village. The Gilmanton Academy Social Library, incorporated in 1815, was housed in the village of Gilmanton Corner, where it also served the students of Gilmanton Academy. These libraries survived at least until 1845 when they are described in the town's history. But, like most private association libraries in rural New Hampshire, they were relatively small, having only 150 volumes and 160 volumes, respectively in 1845. And the private libraries were generally available only to their dues-paying members and did not serve the public at large. 1833 saw the beginning of the free public library movement in New Hampshire, with the establishment of the Peterborough Town Library. It was not, however, until 1878, that the first Belknap County community followed Peterborough's example when the Laconia town meeting voted to establish a public library, which opened its doors the following year. Meredith established its town library in 1882. Tilton's citizens acquired the use of a library in 1887 when the Hall Memorial Library opened in the neighboring town of Northfield (in Merrimack County) to serve both towns. In 1891, the state legislature spurred the growth of public libraries by offering a $100 grant to any municipality that would establish a public library and agree to appropriate a certain sum annually for its support. This grant was accepted by the towns of Alton, Barnstead, and Gilmanton in 1892, and by the towns of Belmont and Gilford in 1893. In Gilmanton, however, there were second thoughts on the new institution.

Although the 1892 annual meeting had decided to establish a board of library trustees and make the necessary annual appropriation', the 1893 annual meeting repealed the earlier vote. 4 In 1895, the state legislature mandated annual library appropriations, even in towns where no public library existed. This requirement apparently prompted the Gilmanton voters to elect library trustees at the annual March 1896 town meeting and to once again adopt the provisions of the state law on the establishment of public libraries at a November 1896 town meeting. The same legislative requirement seems to have eventually convinced the voters of Sanbornton and Centre Harbor to establish public libraries in 1903 and 1910 respectively. The town of New Hampton was spared the necessity of creating a public library, when the Gordon-Nash Library, a library open to the residents of the town but built and supported by a generously endowed private corporation, was opened in 1896. So, by the early 20th century, every citizen of Belknap County had access to a public library.

The public library system developed somewhat differently in Gilmanton than it did in the county's other towns. In most Belknap County towns, one public library serving the entire community was located in the town's major village. The city of Laconia did inherit a library in the area known as Lakeport when it annexed that portion of the town of Gilford in 1893. The Lakeport library became a branch of the city library, but was substantially smaller and clearly subsidiary to the main library, although it did eventually acquire its own building, erected with the bequest of a Lakeport physician. The town of Barnstead experimented in the 1890s with the division of its town library into four branches, in the town's four villages. But, after a few years, the branches were abandoned, and Barnstead's library consolidated in one place. Gilmanton alone developed a system of three separate public libraries for the three different parts of the town, the villages of Gilmanton Corner, Gilmanton Iron Works, and Lower Gilmanton. The early history of the Gilmanton Public Library is somewhat obscure, but it is clear that the three libraries had been established by 1915. The town-owned books were circulated from one library to another, but each library was a distinct entity with its own librarian and its own quarters. This system was no doubt prompted by two factors, the lack of any predominant village that had a clear claim to be the center of the town, and the rural character of the large township, whose scattered residents could travel no faster than a horse could walk and who were more easily served by neighborhood institutions, such as the district schoolhouse.

With the exception of the New Hampton and Centre Harbor libraries, the public libraries of Belknap County began in makeshift quarters, spaces converted from other uses and not designed for library use, such as a rented room in a commercial block, as in Laconia, a spare room in the town hall, as in Sanbornton, or the librarian's home, as in Gilford. The Gordon-Nash Library in New Hampton was, in fact, the first public library in the county to have its own building, actually designed and built for library use, built in 1895, and opened in 1896. The New Hampton library was the result of a generous bequest, and the four libraries that appeared in the county in the next fifteen years were all built with the gift or bequest of private individuals. The public library buildings in Meredith (1900-01) and Centre Harbor (1909-10) were gifts of former residents. The two Laconia library buildings, the main library (1901-03) and the Lakeport branch (1905-06), were erected with the bequests of Laconia men. By 1915, therefore, four of the county's eleven municipalities had specially built library buildings. But more typical were the three libraries of Gilmanton, the Lower Gilmanton library in a private home, the Gilmanton Corner library in a converted cobbler's shop, and the Gilmanton Iron Works library in a village business block.

On May 28, 1915, the Gilmanton Iron Works library lost its home, when a great fire swept the center of Gilmanton Iron Works, destroying "nearly one-half of the village, including the Charles Dockham business block, which housed the library, the selectmen's office, and the post office. The library books were saved, but the library had no place to operate until temporary quarters were readied in mid-November. The great fire was a severe blow to the villagers. But, within a few weeks, a movement, was well underway to erect a library building in Gilmanton Iron Works. On July 14, 1915, a meeting was held to organize the Gilmanton Iron Works Library Association, formed for building, a library. Officers were elected and plans were made for soliciting donations. Food sales and other fundraising events began almost immediately, One of the houses destroyed by the fire was owned by Addie C. Shannon. On August 11, the Association voted to buy the Shannon lot. The actual conveyance was made on October 28, when the small lot near the center of the village was acquired by the Association for $50. In September, the Association was more formally organized and incorporated by the state under articles of the agreement signed 18 and recorded by the Secretary of State on September 23. The articles of the agreement stated the purpose of the new Association as "the construction and maintaining of a public library in Gilmanton Iron Works, N.H. New officers and a board of directors were elected under the articles of agreement in October. Plans for the building, drawn and donated by Willard M. Bacon, a Boston architect who summered on Crystal Lake, a Gilmanton lake just north of the village, were adopted by the board of directors in February of 1916. By the end of June 1916, the Association had raised "a little over $1100", through fundraising events, and donations from permanent and summer residents of the town, former residents, and interested parties in nearby towns. On June 17, the directors felt confident enough to create a building committee (Dr. Clarence P. Ballard, Lizzie A. Connell, and Charles A. Price) with "full power to construct" the building. The building contract was promptly put out for bids and was soon awarded to a local builder, Herbert A. Twombly of Gilmanton, who had built the new Iron Works Village school.

The contract called for the Association "to furnish the frame and boards and one thousand feet of finish and Mr. Twombly to furnish all other materials and complete the building on or before Oct. 15, 1916, for $1500".CO (Besides monetary donations, the Association had also received donations of lumber, notably most of the timbers needed for the frame) The contractor commenced work on the foundation on July 29, 1916. By early September, the frame was "up and boarded in". One Laconia paper reported on November 1, that the "Finishing touches are being given to the new Library building", and, at the end of December, that "the new library is ready for the decorators". But the completion and furnishing of the library required more fundraising, which continued well into the next year.-4 The library was not ready for use until the summer of 1917. The Gilmanton Iron Works library opened to the public in its new building on August 11, 1917. The library was formally dedicated a few days later, at a well-attended ceremony on August 16.

Few changes have been made to the library since its construction. Some necessary repairs, such as the replacement of roof shingles, the portico steps and floor, and the column plinths, have been made over the years. Metal gutters and drainpipes were installed in 1968. A metal and glass storm door replaced a wooden framed screen door at the main entry in 1972. A new gas furnace required the installation of 1979 outside gas tanks and a new floor register in the reading area. A handrail was mounted on the front steps in 1984. 1988 and saw the installation of new flower boxes on the front windows, which are larger and more elaborate than the original flowerboxes. Basically, however, the building appears today as it did at its dedication in 1917.

The Gilmanton Iron Works Library differed in style from the five preceding and one contemporary library buildings in Belknap County, (By the time the Gilmanton Iron Works Library was completed a public library building was under construction in Barnstead.
Although it was not completed and opened until the fall of 1917, Barnstead's Oscar Foss Memorial Library should be regarded as a contemporary of the Gilmanton library.) Four of these six buildings, the Gordon-Nash Library in New Hampton, the Benjamin M. Smith Library in Meredith, the Nichols Memorial Library in Centre Harbor, and the Oscar Foss Memorial Library in Barnstead, were classical Revival style buildings. All four were symmetrical in form, with a central entry and with the exception of the Barnstead library, which has a recessed entry) an entry pavilion. The two Laconia libraries, the impressive Romanesque Revival Gale Memorial Library (the main library) and the eclectic Ossian Wilbur Goss Reading Room (the Lakeport branch), both asymmetrical in form and plan, were the only exceptions to the dominance of the Classical styles. The Gilmanton Iron Works Library marked the first appearance of a new style, the Colonial Revival style, and a new form, the symmetrical main block with a central entry portico, that also characterized all three later library buildings erected in the county. Willard M. Bacon did not design the Gilmanton Iron Works Library as an academically correct reproduction of a Colonial building. But, the Colonial Revival style can be seen in the wide clapboards and sillboards with water tables on the walls, the triple windows with multipane upper sash and single pane lower sash, the broad hip roof, the main entry's frame of pilasters and entablature, the columned, pedimented portico, the box cornice with architrave and frieze, the symmetrical plan and the entablatures, columns, and pilasters of the interior. But, there are some features, such as the wide overhang of the main cornice, the lack of corner trim, and such interior elements as the window and door frames, the fireplace and its mantelshelf, that are not typical of the style, although they are typical of the period. For the three Belknap County library buildings that followed the Gilmanton Iron Works Library, all in adjoining towns, the style, and form of the Gilmanton building may have served as an inspiration. This is quite clear in the case of the Gilford Public Library, built in 1924-25. The Gilford library copies the Gilmanton Iron Works Library in most of its exterior features, the wide clapboards, sillboards, wide cornice, three-bay front with central entry, columned and pedimented entry portico, large triple windows, and broad hip roof. The Gilford library, erected by a local builder, is not as sophisticated in its design or in its details as the Gilmanton library, but it is clearly modeled on the earlier building. The two other later libraries, the Belmont Public Library (1927-28) and the Gilman Library of Alton (1951), are both Colonial Revival buildings having three-bay fronts with central entries and central pedimented entry porticos. Both, however, are gable-roofed brick buildings designed by architects, and probably were not directly influenced by the Gilmanton Iron Works Library. Nevertheless, the Gilmanton Iron Works Library clearly indicated in its form and style the future of library architecture in Belknap County.

The Gilmanton Iron Works Library is perhaps more significant for its quality than for its influence. It is a relatively small building, just 40 feet long and 25 feet deep, with a modest entry portico. But, it is a well-designed and well-executed building. The exterior ornament, the sillboards with water tables, the wide cornice with its architrave and frieze, the moulded lintels of the windows, covering and echoing the architrave of the main cornice, the pilasters and entablature framing the main entry, and the graceful columns and pediment of the portico, is restrained but successful. The symmetrical and nicely composed facades give the building a pleasing exterior. The interior, with its symmetrical and integrated plan, its unusual window and door frames, attractive baseboards, chair rails and cornices, fine fireplace with mantelshelf, the exceptional ensemble of columns, pilasters, and entablatures in the central portion, and the coved plaster ceilings, is quite sophisticated for a building of this size. The interior, like the exterior, is well-designed and pleasing to the eye. The architect, although designing a small building on a tight budget, succeeded in producing a very attractive building, one of Belknap County's best small library buildings.