[LIB6856] Still in use as a library.
Springfield Town Library, 43 Main Street: (c,1895; enlarged 1928, 1938, 1966-67, 1978).
1-story plus full basement, hip-roofed brick Renaissance Revival style library with a rusticated foundation, brick masonry walls, brick and terra cotta trim, and a slate-covered roof. The main building was erected in 1895 and has a T-shaped plan with a 40' x 56' main section and a 28' x 30' west wing. To this was added a 36' x 36' children's room to the south (on Main Street) in 1928, a 24' x 28' stack area to the rear of the original wing in 1938, a fire exit to the wing addition and new entrance steps to the main building in 1966-67, and a 50' x 50' addition to the rear of the 1928 wing in 1978. The 1928 "Barnard" wing was built in the same style as the main building, using the same scale, materials, and architectural details. All of the other additions are not visible from Main Street and they are sympathetic to the scale and material of the original building. The main block of the library exhibits iron ridge cresting; an entablature with a consoled cornice and terra cotta mouldings; an entrance pavilion with Corinthian corner pilasters and a pedimented gable with a circular terra cotta date plaque "1895"; a frieze with "Spafford Library Building~ inscribed; and the main entrance with a decorated round-arched pediment with round terra cotta state seal in the tympanum. Quoins mark the corners of the main block and the south wing. The windows are 1/1 with triangular pediments supported by consoles.
The Springfield Town Library was erected in 1895 with a $20,000 bequest left to the town by Henry Harrison Spafford. Originally known as the Spafford Library Building, it is now referred to as the Springfield Town Library. The building was designed by architects Willard P. Adden of Reading, Mass., and Russell W. Porter of Boston. [http://www.crjc.org/heritage/V07-4.htm]
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