New Canaan Library would memorialize 1913 building, if facility is demolished

new canaan — The executive director of New Canaan Library listed ways that memories of the 1913 library could be saved, even if the building itself is demolished.

Lisa Oldham wants to use the old library until the 44,000 square-foot modern library is completed. The plans then call for the demolition of the old stone structure in order to have a green for community activities.

The New Canaan Preservation Alliance hopes to save the neo-Palladian Colonial Revival portion of the library by preserving the 1913 section, keeping a 1936 wall and reconstructing missing sections.

Photos, a book, original art, re-purposed stone and a plaque could be used to commemorate the old library, according to a recent presentation by the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.

The 1913 library has been the focus of Town Council, petitions, selectmen and letters to the Planing and Zoning Commission.

The library would commission professional photographs and compile a limited edition commemorative book, Oldham said. The book would be sold to the general public and become part of a library’s permanent collection.

Photographs from the project would also be displayed in new library and “elsewhere,” Oldham added, not specifying.

In addition, the library would invite local artists to create original artwork, which focuses on features of the old library that have been most “striking or meaningful to them.”

The library would then work with a “communitybased committee” to select works of art and those would become a permanent display in the new library, to honor its heritage.

Unless the building or its facade is moved to a new location, the library plans to re-purpose the granite stones from the original structure for a perimeter wall planned for Cherry Street as well as other locations on the site, Oldham said.

A plaque would also be installed on the stone wall that will surround the new construction and preserve the memory.

Even though the current building is on private New Canaan Library property, the town is expected to give $10 million toward the $38 million new library project.

Grace Duffield / Hearst Connecticut Media The 1913 wing of the New Canaan Library on Main Street is the center of a controversy as residents try to decide if it should be demolished after the new library is built next door.

Contributed / New Canaan Library The landscape of the proposed new building will take into account native plants, pollinator pathways and animal habitats pathway.