National Register Listing

Gale Memorial Library

695 Main St., Laconia, NH

Gale Memorial Library is significant architecturally as not only one of the best public library buildings in New Hampshire but also as one of the state's finest examples of the Romanesque Revival style.

Napoleon Bonaparte, Gale (1815-1894), a successful Laconia banker, was "not a great reader of books", but he was convinced of the importance of a good public library. Among the bequests in his will, were three gifts to the city of Laconia, $5000 for a public park, $10,000 for "a town hall or building for public use", and $10,000 for a substantial and proper building of brick and stone for the Public Library": The residue, actually, the bulk, of his estate was left to four trustees, John T. Busiel, Edwin F. Burleigh, Charles F. Pitman, and Erastus P. Jewell (who were also the executors of the estate), with the instruction that "if, in their judgment, a larger sum than $10,000 is required for the construction of the Library building... they may, in their discretion, use for that purpose a sum not exceeding one-quarter part of what remains ...of my estate". (The annual income for the rest of the residue was to be used for the benefit of the public library and the maintenance of the park.) In February of 1895, the Laconia city council voted to accept the bequests and appointed three of the executors-trustees (Busiel, Burleigh, and Pitman) as a committee to locate and build the library and to lay out the public park.

The committee soon decided on a proper location for both the park and the library. In 1891, the city of Laconia widened Depot Street, an ordinary street, into a spacious Railroad Square (now Veterans Square) to serve the impressive Romanesque Revival railroad station built by the Concord & Montreal Railroad in 1891-2. At the northeast end of the Square stood the Congregational Church at the corner of Church and Main Streets. But most of the Square's Main Street frontage was occupied by the Moulton homestead. To the committee, the Moulton property seemed the perfect site for both projects, as it was a quite prominent location, suitable for a major public building, and a capacious lot, suitable for a public park. So, in April, the committee proposed to the city council the purchase of the Moulton lot for both the park and the library building. The council agreed, adding $10,000 to the $5,000 bequest for the park to buy the property in May of 1895.

The trustees/building committee also decided that $10,000 would not suffice for the city's library building. To the original bequest was added the $10,000 bequest for "a town hall or building for public use" and a quarter of the residue of the estate. Construction of the building was delayed for a few years as the executors worked to convert Gale's securities and real estate holdings into cash. By 1900, they were ready to act. In the fall of that year, the Moulton buildings were removed to clear the site for building operations in 1901. The building committee considered proposals from several architects, finally settling on a design by the well-known Boston architect Charles Brigham (1841-1925). Brigham's design, as it came from the architect's drafting boards in the spring of 1901, was for an impressive granite Romanesque Revival library. In May of 1901, after workmen had begun grading the lot, the building contract was awarded to E. Noyes Whitcomb & Co. of Boston. The contract called for the walls to be up by October 15 and the roofs on by November 15. The rejection of the imperfect stone delivered in July delayed construction, but fine fall weather allowed the contractor to almost meet the schedule. By October 9, a local newspaper could report "The wall on the end towards the B & M railroad track, which part of the building will contain the books, is now finished up to about six feet of the top, while the first story of the walls on the other sides is laid. "O By the end of November, all of the roofs, save the tower roof, were up and covered with tarpaper. Slating commenced in early December. But, in 1903-03 progress seems to have slowed, as the projected completion date for the building was moved back from the summer of 1902 to October, then into 1903, first to January, then to May. The plasterers were finishing their work in June 1902. In early December, the carpenters had nearly completed the interior finish, with the exception of the floors. In February 1903, the building was reported as "nearing completion" with the custom-made furniture, light fixtures, and carpets "now being received and placed in position". But "the finishing touches" were delayed for "several weeks" for "lack of some small...fixtures which did not arrive from the manufacturer" as soon as planned. Finally, on June 9, 1903, the Gale Memorial Library was dedicated with much ceremony and to the general approval of the public.9 As one local newspaper delicately put it, "The progress of constructing the Gale Library may possibly have, been a trifle slow, but...every Laconian will admit that it is worth waiting for." The building,, exclusive of the furnishings, lot, and groundwork, cost "a little more than $60,000, six times Gale's original bequest.

The library grounds continued to be improved over the years. The Congregational Church at the corner of Church and Main Streets was regarded by many, including the majority of the Congregationalists, as an old-fashioned and obsolete building. It was also a traffic hazard, as Church Street, an increasingly important thoroughfare, was narrowed considerably by the structure. In May of 1903, prompted in part by the library building committee, the city council condemned the church. The Congregationalists built a new church nearby, selling the old church to the People's Christian Church Society, which moved it across the Square to a new site. Most of the small church lot disappeared when Church Street was widened, although a narrow strip a few yards wide was added to the library lot. More importantly, the removal of the church gave the Gale Memorial Library undisputed dominance of the northeast end of the Square. The library grounds have been carefully maintained as a small park. Improvements have included the layout of the garden, with its fountain, along the northwest side of the property. Of greater symbolic importance was the erection by the Gale trustees in 1917 of the grand flagpole designed by Boston architects Adden & Parker for the street corner, and the erection by the city of the World War I honor roll in 1919 and the Spanish-American War monument in 1949.

The building itself has survived virtually intact. The one major exterior change was the addition in 1956-57 of the modern wing. Designed by architects Prescott & Erickson and built by Rolfe Camp Co., Inc., the new wing provided much-needed facilities, a children's room, a workroom, and an auditorium. At the dedication on November 17, 1957, the library trustees "regretted that the addition could not conform to the architecture of the main building". But the new wing, although differing in style and materials, from the original building, does at least have the virtue of modesty. Lower and simpler than the original library, it was placed in the rear corner of the older building. While the modern wing hides the lower portions of three original facades, the important features and the public facades of the original library were left untouched.

The interior has also seen some changes. The new wing required the cutting of a door in the stack wing and the obscuring of some windows in the stack wing and the main block. The continued growth of the library collection led to additional changes. Over the past few decades, the reference room bookshelves have been expanded to fill the entire wall space, in the process, hiding an older bookcase, a door, an exterior window, and a sidelight of the entryway. The same growth of the collection required the construction in 1971-72 of the second tier of stacks, with its stairways down to the main level and up to the museum. Other changes were included in the 1971-72 renovation. The first floor and the museum were carpeted. The workroom in the modern wing was enlarged. The original charge-out desk had spanned the opening between the delivery room and the stacks. In keeping with the modern library practice of providing free access to the books, the old desk was replaced by a new charge-out desk to the side of that opening. The plan of the first floor was changed by moving the stained glass window in the entrance hall. It had originally filled the arch between the entrance hall and the periodical room. The delivery room was reached from the entrance hall through what is now the Mowbray Reading Room, which was connected to the entrance hall by an archway. The opening between the entrance hall and the Mowbray Reading Room was now closed by the relocated stained glass window, turning that small space from a busy passageway into an isolated reading room. The new opening between the entrance hall and the periodical room, and the moving stained glass window, were so carefully rebuilt that the casual visitor, ignorant of the building's history, is quite unaware that any change was made. Basically, with the exception of the charge-out desk, several elements in the reference room, and the stained glass window between the museum and the stack wing, all of the library's original interior features are still to be seen and admired.

The high praise that the Gale Memorial Library received at the time of its dedication was well deserved. The choice of the Romanesque Revival style for Laconia's largest and most prominent public building was an appropriate one. (That choice may have been prompted by Bradford Gilbert's Romanesque Revival railroad station just across the Square, which is, like the library, one of the state's best examples of the style.) The late Romanesque Revival, inspired by the work of H.H. Richardson, emphasized weight and massiveness through rock-faced masonry, heavy arches, deep window reveals, and broad hip and pyramidal roofs. These devices are all used successfully in the Gale Memorial Library, to give the building a true sense of dignity and strength. Generally, the exterior details are very simple, as is evidenced by the plain cornice with its heavy stone brackets on the main block, pavilion, and stack wing. But, Brigham designed a building that was not only strong but picturesque. The general severity of the walls is relieved by the use of light gray granite for the arches, surrounds, sills, lintels, stringcourses, cornices, and the high basement, and by the use of smooth stone and carved ornament where it is most appropriate, at the main entrance and in the top stories of the building's most prominent feature, the tower, and its corner turret. The building's main level plan was organized around two cross axes which met in the delivery room. But that basic axial arrangement is submerged by the variety of forms used for the different parts of the building, the main block with its semicircular apse, the somewhat lower pavilion with its bow window, the large stack wing with its ventilator, the one-story office section, the one story, gable-roofed main entry with its arched porch, and the great square tower with its round corner turret. These distinct sections are unified by similar wall treatment and ornament and are successfully molded into a coherent composition. As a result, the Gale Memorial Library is at once massive and strong, as well as varied and picturesque. A large building, it is nevertheless more impressive than its size would suggest, and quite simply dominates its surroundings.

The interior is harder to classify stylistically. Classical elements, such as the ornate cornices with moldings and mutules or the pilasters flanking doors and windows and supporting semicircular arches are more common than medieval elements, such as the groin vault in the entrance hall or the stained glass windows. The building successfully accommodates both styles, the medieval limestone fireplace of the periodical room as well as the classical Doric fireplace of the museum. For the interior, the architect was less concerned with stylistic consistency than with the creation of elaborate and dignified public spaces. Certainly, the public rooms of the Gale Memorial Library are among the most interesting of any public building in central New Hampshire. The large tall periodical room, with its semicircular southeast apse, tall arched windows, elaborate doorway with sidelights and balcony in the northwest end, and ornate ceiling, is the most impressive. But, so are the entrance hall with its groin vault and stairway, the delivery room with its elaborate cornice and symmetrical design, the Mowbray Reading Room with its unusual plan and ceiling, the reference room with its great arched triple windows, and finally, the museum with its own unique triple windows and elaborate ceiling with a stained glass skylight. Few municipal buildings in central New Hampshire can approach the public rooms of the Gale Memorial Library in the high quality of their design and ornament.

Bryant Tolles included the Gale Memorial Library in his NEW HAMPSHIRE ARCHITECTURE as "an excellent though the late example of the Romanesque Revival style". Both categorizations are correct. In New Hampshire, the Romanesque Revival was popular primarily in the 1880s and the 1890s. Only a few significant Romanesque Revival buildings were erected in the 20th century, mostly in the first five years of the century. The style was used basically for public buildings, churches, schools, town halls, courthouses, and libraries. The Gale Memorial Memorial Library must be ranked highly among these buildings, particularly among the library buildings. A number of notable Romanesque Revival libraries were built in the 1890s, such as the Clay Library in Jaffrey (1895-6), the Conant Library in Winchester (1890), the Silsby Library in Charlestown (1893-4), and the Pillsbury Free Library in Warner (1890-1). But these, like most New Hampshire public libraries, are relatively small buildings. The only Romanesque Revival library that is comparable in size to the Laconia library is Wilson Hall (1884-5), Dartmouth College's former library. Of the two, the Gale Memorial Library is the more impressive and the more sophisticated. It could be argued that the Laconia library is New Hampshire's most important Romanesque Revival library building. Certainly, it can be stated, without fear of contradiction, that the Gale Memorial Library is one of the best examples of both its style and its building type in the state.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1985.