Pittsfield Public Library

About this property

The Pittsfield Public Library is located at 110 Library Street in Pittsfield, Maine. The building it occupies is a Beaux-Arts building designed by Albert Randolph Ross, and was built in 1903-04 with funding assistance from Andrew Carnegie. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. It is one of the state's oldest Beaux-Arts buildings, and one of the most architecturally distinctive in the town. The Pittsfield Public Library is set on a roughly square lot at the southwest corner of Library and Main Streets, just across the railroad tracks south of the town center. The building is oriented facing toward the corner, fronted by a grassy plaza, with a central domed section flanked by rectangular wings radiating to either side. The entrance is at the center, in a round-arch opening flanked by engaged columns and topped by a gabled Classical pediment. The building is constructed out of white brick, and rests on the granite foundation. The interior is organized with the librarian's desk at the center, with stacks radiating behind it, and reading rooms with bookcases in the wings. The basement has been adapted to house additional stacks. The library's creation was facilitated by the efforts of local mill owner Robert Dodson, and by a funding grant from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The designer was Albert Randolph Ross, an architect from New York City, who designed two other Maine libraries, including one at Good Will-Hinckley, also funded by Carnegie. The building was erected in 1903 by Waterville contractor M. C. Foster & Son, and opened to the public in June, 1904. The plan of the building makes excellent use of its square corner site. The library is a one-story ‘Palladian Villa’ consisting of a circular central chamber, capped by a shallow dome, from which two identical rectangular wings sweep outward to form a 135° angle. The wings are roughly equivalent in area to the central chamber, and are topped by shallow hipped roofs which meet the dome at its base. The leading gateway opens into the central chamber at the angle formed by the two wings, and is surrounded by a shallow classical frame of pilasters, columns, entablature, and pediment. The building’s unusual shape allows it to fit into one corner of its square lot (in the angle farthest from either street) and so use the bulk of the lot as a grassy plaza. The library is constructed of white pressed brick with a granite foundation and base trim. The entablature which runs around the building’s eaves, as well as the pediment and decorative work above the front entrance, are of terra-cotta. On a section of the entablature over the entrance is painted ‘Public Library’, and a smaller message between the door and transom window reads ‘Open to All’, The roof and dome are copper. A tiny copper finial was detached from the dome’s crown not long ago.

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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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