National Register of Historic Places

Aldrich Free Public Library

Plainfield, Windham County, Connecticut
Listed
July 26, 1994
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
94000768

About this property

Aldrich Free Public Library is the public library of the Moosup section of Plainfield, Connecticut. It is located at 299 Main Street, in an architecturally significant Queen Anne building constructed in 1895 with funds given by the library's major benefactors, David L. Aldrich and Edwin Milner. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The Aldrich Free Public Library stands in the village center of Moosup, at the northwest corner of Main and High Streets. It is a 1+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, with a slate roof and exterior finished mostly in wooden clapboards. It has an asymmetrical plan, with a cross-gabled roof configuration that includes side gables, a front gable over the entrance, and a turret-like rounded projecting to its right. The gable ends are finished in wooden shingles, with keystoned Palladian windows at their centers. The rounded turret-like roof end is crowned by a finial, with a band of sash windows below. The interior retains many original features, include oak bookcases, furnitures, flooring, and trim. The library was built in 1895 to a design by Charles F. Wilcox of Providence, Rhode Island, and is a prominent local example of Queen Anne Victorian architecture. It was funded in part by a bequest of David Aldrich, a local mill owner, and his business partner, Edwin Milner. Aldrich died in 1889, and the remainder of the library's cost was covered by fundraising within the community. Milner donated the land on which it stands, and covered enough of the building construction cost so that the locally raised funds could be used for books and furnishings. National Register of Historic Places listings in Windham County, Connecticut Media related to Aldrich Free Public Library at Wikimedia Commons

Location

299 Main St.
Plainfield, Windham County, Connecticut
41.71900, -71.87495

Categories

ARCHITECTURESOCIAL HISTORYEDUCATION
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Glen Falls Bridge
Industrial
0.7 mi
Plainfield Woolen Company Mill
Industrial
1.6 mi
Central Village Historic District
Listed
1.8 mi
Dorrance Inn
Colonial
2.4 mi
Sterling Hill Historic District
Listed
2.4 mi

Questions about this property

When was Aldrich Free Public Library listed on the National Register?

Aldrich Free Public Library was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 26, 1994.

What type of historic resource is Aldrich Free Public Library?

Aldrich Free Public Library is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Aldrich Free Public Library?

The period of significance for Aldrich Free Public Library is recorded as the industrial era.

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