Cutler Memorial Library

About this property

The Cutler Memorial Library building houses the public library of Farmington, Maine. It is located at 117 Academy Street (corner of High Street), between the downtown area and the campus of the University of Maine at Farmington. Its building, dedicated to the memory of Nathan Cutler, was built in 1901-03 as the town's first dedicated library building, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The library building is a small Beaux Arts stone structure, designed by Auburn architect William R. Miller and built in 1901–03. The exterior is made of granite quarried in North Jay, Maine. It is a basically L-shaped building, with its long sides facing Academy and High Streets, joined at the corner by a low circular tower with a low-pitch conical roof and spire. The original entrance, facing Academy Street, has a recessed wooden door flanked by Doric columns, with Ionic pilasters at the outside of the recessed area. The interior of the library has retained much of its original woodwork, including particularly elegant arches, pilasters, and molding in the tower section. A new lobby area was added to the building in 2000, designed by Richard Burt. The first library association was established in Farmington in 1865 as a subscription service for its shareholders. This organization failed in 1880, and in 1890 the Farmington Public Library Association was formed, renting space in the local Masonic hall. Founders of this association included John and Isaac Cutler, the latter of whom donated the funds for the construction of this building, which is named in honor of his father Nathan. Franklin County’s first public library was established in 1845 at Keith’s Mills, currently a part of Chesterville. Some other libraries were constructed after that and the library in Farmington, the subject of this nomination, was one of them. The Farmington Library Association was founded in 1865 and shares were sold to subscribers at $10.00 a share. The main portion of the library’s collection was the books that belonged to the old Philomathean Society. It is a reading group that has ceased to exist. The Farmington Library Association was inoperative in 1880 but it was the forerunner of the current Farmington Public Library Association founded in 1890 with George C. Purington as its first president. The association voted to rent Room 6 in the Masonic Building as its headquarters in the fall. The rent of that room was $50.00 a year then. The library officially started its journey on February 14, 1891with Miss Mittie Fairbanks as librarian. Two of the founding members were John L. and Isaac M. Cutler. Isaac made the first donation of 500 USD to the library in 1890. Mr. Purington recommended to Isaac Cutler a permanent memorial to his father, the Honorable Nathan Cutler. Isaac permitted the plans for submission with no regard to cost.

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Categories

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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