Winn Memorial Library
Encyclopedia
_-_first_story_plan.jpg)
Woburn, Massachusetts
Woburn is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. The population was 38,120 at the 2010 census. Woburn is located north of Boston, Massachusetts, and just south of the intersection of I-93 and I-95.- History :...
.
Architecture
The 1879 building was designed as a public libraryPublic library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
by American architect H. H. Richardson
Henry Hobson Richardson
Henry Hobson Richardson was a prominent American architect who designed buildings in Albany, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and other cities. The style he popularized is named for him: Richardsonian Romanesque...
and is now a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
. The Winn family specifically requested that the library not be named after them despite their generosity paying for constructing the library, and the library is properly called the "Woburn Public Library." Nevertheless, it is popularly known, in architectural circles, as the Winn Memorial Library.
The library was built between 1876-1879 as the first of Richardson's series of library designs and in it he established his characteristic, asymmetrical plan for such buildings: an entrance and reception, usually with staircase tower; the reading room(s) with stacks; and an optional art gallery.
The library's front facade presents a long, single-story stack area (at left), with high, column-separated windows forming a strip below the peaked roof; a projecting, three-story set of reading rooms with entryway and High Victorian tower at center right; and picture gallery and octagonal museum at the right side. The facade is formed of brownstone with lighter stone trim, arranged in polychrome over the main arches, accented with a red tile roof.
A statue of native son and notable scientist Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford
Benjamin Thompson
Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford , FRS was an American-born British physicist and inventor whose challenges to established physical theory were part of the 19th century revolution in thermodynamics. He also served as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Loyalist forces in America during the American...
, rises from the main lawn before the library.
As "Winn Memorial Library", it was declared a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1987.
Further reading
- Annual report of the Woburn Public Library. 1890-1894
- William R. Cutter. "A Model Village Library." New England Magazine v.1, no.6, February 1890
- Carolyn Pitts, "NHL Architecture Theme", in CRM Bulletin, Cultural Resources Management, A National Park Service Technical Bulletin, Volume 10: No. 6, December 1987.
- Margaret Henderson Floyd, Architecture After Richardson: Regionalism Before Modernism, University of Chicago Press, 1994, page 192. ISBN 0226254100.