Thomas Crane Public Library

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Thomas Crane Public Library
National Register of Historic Places
National Historic Landmark
The building in 2011

The building in 2011

Thomas Crane Public Library (Massachusetts)
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
location Quincy , Massachusetts , United States
Coordinates 42 ° 15 '5.4 "  N , 71 ° 0' 10"  W Coordinates: 42 ° 15 '5.4 "  N , 71 ° 0' 10"  W.
surface 2.3  acres (0.9  ha )
Built 1881-1882
architect Henry Hobson Richardson
Architectural style Richardsonian Romanesque
NRHP number 72000143
Data
The NRHP added October 18, 1972
Declared as an  NHL December 23, 1987

The Thomas Crane Public Library (TCPL) is a public library in Quincy in the state of Massachusetts of the United States . Both the main building (40 Washington Street) and the Wollaston branch (41 Beale Street) were registered with their own numbers on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and 1989, respectively . The main building was also recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1987 .

architecture

Outdoor areas

The building was constructed with ashlar stone masonry made of granite and has red, horizontal accents made of sandstone . Eyelid-shaped dormer windows were integrated into the asymmetrically designed gable roof - the back is longer than the front . A crossed gable is located above the entrance area, which is equipped with a wide arch, with a tower-like staircase to the left. A sandstone block above the entrance bears the inscription "Anno Domini MDCCCLXXXI".

In 1908 a first annex was added to the rear; In 1939 the Albert Crane Memorial Wing followed in the southeast , which almost doubled the available space of the library.

Indoor areas

The window painting Angel at the Tomb by John La Farge .

In contrast to most of the older libraries, the interior is relatively grand. The wood fireplace in the reading room, which is decorated with engravings of floral motifs from the area, was worked out in great detail. The windows designed by La Farge also attracted widespread attention.

Historical meaning

Henry Hobson Richardson was one of the most influential architects of his time - mainly because of the Trinity Church in Boston , which founded the neo-Romanesque style - but died at the age of 47 at the height of his career. The TCPL, which opened on May 30, 1882, is one of a total of five libraries that he designed.

On February 20, 1880 , Albert Crane from New York offered the city ​​of Quincy to build a library dedicated to his father, Thomas Crane, who had died five years earlier. Crane had been selling Quincy- quarried granite in New York since 1829 . Due to a large-scale fire in New York in 1835, there was great demand for the granite from Quincy, so that Thomas Crane did good business and supplied building materials for the Grand Central Terminal , among other things . He also worked as a bank director and insurance agent and was close friends with Horace Greeley , among others . However, Crane always spent part of the summer in his hometown Quincy, which is why the family was not only economically connected to the city. Construction work on the library began as early as December 1880.

Thanks to his experience with the Winn Memorial Library in Woburn and the Ames Memorial Library in Easton , Richardson was able to avoid known problems and at the same time reuse some design elements. He was assisted by the painter John La Farge and the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in designing the details .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Thomas Crane Public Library  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 10, 2019.
  2. ↑ cf. Pitts, p. 2.
  3. ↑ a b cf. Pitts, p. 5.
  4. ↑ a b cf. Pitts, p. 3.
  5. ↑ cf. Pitts, p. 7.