Library board says it was not consulted on feasibility study to save 1913 building
Those who want it preserved say it belongs to town
NEW CANAAN — Speakers told the Town Council on Wednesday that the 1913 library building is part of the town’s character.
The library board said it belonged to the library Wednesday, before the Friends of Our 1913 Library presented a study it says shows the building can be saved.
Plans for the new New Canaan Library call for the 107-year-old building to be torn down to allow construction of the new facility and creation of a town green at the corner of Main Street and Cherry Street.
The library was not part of the feasibility study commissioned by Friends of Our 1913 Library and the New Canaan Preservation Alliance.
“As a member of the New Canaan Library Board, we want to convey our disappointment that we were not invited to participate in this,” said Christine Seaver, vice chairman of the New Canaan Library Board, a member of its building committee and co-chairman of the capital campaign for the new building.
“It’s our property, it’s our building,” Seaver said, adding that library officials were surprised, given the “historic partnership” between the town and the library, to have not known about the presentation before finding out on social media Tuesday.
“It’s New Canaan’s building,” speaker Patricia Fowler later said.
“Yes, the library exists with their foundation,” Fowler said. “It has always existed with the support of the people of New Canaan.”
Charles Robinson said town money covers 75 to 80 percent of the library’s operating budget.
“If the town of New Canaan ceased its contribution, there would be no library operations,” he said.
Robinson and others who want the 1913 building saved say they hope to see the old building and new building sharing the same site, something the library board says is impossible based on plans years in the making.
“Only the narcissism of the library board prevents the saving of this building,” he said. “Period.”
Speaking via Zoom from Newport, R.I., Grant Pelletier of Kirk and Co. said the 1913 library is “extremely well maintained and extremely flexible” in terms of use.
Saying his study was not targeting any specific use, he said he found the building to be in good enough condition to be used in another manner. Other libraries and schools have been transitioned into offices, business incubators, a food services hub or private residences.
“Is there an alternative in the market that makes sense? The answer is yes,” Pelletier said. “This particular exercise is not typical of adaptive reuse scenarios.”
Normally, Pelletier said, a municipality is looking to dispose of a surplus building. In this case, he was asked to look at a building with an eye toward saving it.
“The New Canaan Library is a very special place,” Fowler said. “That building is one of the fewer and fewer things that we have as far as historical points of reference.”
From its earliest days, Mimi Findlay of the Friends of Our 1913 Library and the New Canaan Preservation Alliance said, the library building was recognized as important. Designed by architect Alfred H. Taylor, who won a contest, she quoted a 1910 New Canaan Advertiser article that called the building “a public ornament that will add to the town.”
Lisa Melland said the 1913 library could be preserved like the Town Hall, where the facade was kept in place and the building modernized.
“In the long term, seeing that facade go away will make us very sad,” Melland said.
Patricia Spugani and her husband were early donors to the new library, she said, before they learned that the 1913 building would be demolished.
“It’s our most significant building, save for Town Hall,” Supgani said.
The new building and the 1913 library could coexist, she said, invoking the George Washington Bridge and the Little Red Lighthouse immortalized in the children’s book.
Spugani spoke of a library on Cape Cod which turned an 1898 building into a meeting room and won a national architectural award.
“In New Canaan, we have an opportunity to do the same thing to our own,” she said.
Janet Lindstrom, former director of the New Canaan Historical Society, called the 1913 library “historic,” citing Mary Louise King, author of “Portrait of New Canaan.”
The latest Plan of Conservation and Development identifies preserving the character of New Canaan as a priority, Betty Lovastik said, citing photos of Waveny House, built in 1912, and the 1913 library in the document, submitted by residents who consider the structures important.
“A town’s character is based on its structures,” Patricia Funt Oxman said. “Among the most identifiable is the 1913 library. This is a building worth fighting for.”
“We’re asking for the library and town to work with the Friends to save this building,” Rose Long Rothbart said.
The story could be, Oxman said, that after almost losing the 1913 in 2020, it was saved by a group of residents. “It’s never too late,” she said.
“Lockwood Mathews (Mansion in Norwalk) was saved at the last minute,” she said. “They had already put the dynamite in the basement. There’s always time.”