SHELBURNE — The tiny, fieldstone Shelburne Free Public Library is already a treasure to locals, but now it has also been nominated for placement in the National Register of Historic Places.
Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin has announced that the state Historical Commission has approved the library’s nomination, which has been submitted to the National Park Service in Washington, D.C.
“Inclusion of the Shelburne Free Public Library in the National Register will help to protect this historically significant and architecturally unique community resource,” Galvin said.
Built in 1898 and in continuous use for more than 115 years, this little library at 233 Shelburne Center Road was built from fieldstones pulled from local farmers’ fields, with brownstone trim augmented by flat river stones in the entry arch, window openings and buttresses.
Shelburne’s first library was formed in 1850 as a cooperative book-loaning association, in the home of Capt. Walter Wells. It had about 2,000 books, and the library patrons paid $3 per year.
But in 1892, town meeting voters approved setting up a public library. The town’s history book notes that “a town appropriation of $2,000 for its erection was slightly exceeded, although the work of gathering the stones was done by the farmers around the center.”
Farmer and carpenter George Burnham of Greenfield built the main block of the Free Public Library, which is the only example of Late Gothic Revival-style architecture rendered in fieldstone in the region.
In 1952, a lower, fieldstone wing was added to house children’s books and a furnace to heat the building.
The Shelburne Free Public Library is one of six historic resources in the state to be approved for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places at its most recent quarterly meeting.
You can reach Diane Broncaccio at:
dbroncaccio@recorder.com or 772-0261, ext. 277