The Ansonia Library is the public library serving
Ansonia, Connecticut
Ansonia is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. Located on the Naugatuck River, it is immediately north of Derby, and about northwest of New Haven. The city is part of the Naugatuck Valley Planning Region. The population was ...
. It is located at 53 South Cliff, in an architecturally distinguished
Richardsonian Romanesque
Richardsonian Romanesque is a architectural style, style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revivalism (architecture), revival style incorporates 11th- and 12th-century ...
building designed by Connecticut architect
George Keller and completed in 1892 as a gift from Caroline Phelps Stokes. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on August 23, 1985.
[
]
Architecture and building history
The Ansonia Library stands in a mainly residential area a short way east of downtown Ansonia, on a triangular parcel at the junction of South Cliff Street and Cottage Avenue. It is a two-and-a-half-story building with load-bearing brownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material.
Ty ...
walls, in plan. Its walls are and thicker. Its asymmetrical plan is visually dominated by a square tower on the left side, with a clock in its upper stage and a pyramidal copper roof. The main entrance is set near the center of the South Cliff facade, recessed under a large round arch. The gable above the entrance has a rose window near its peak.[ With ]
The building was donated by Caroline Phelps Stokes as a memorial to her parents and to her maternal grandfather Anson Greene Phelps
Anson Green Phelps (March 24, 1781 – May 18, 1858) was an American entrepreneur and business man from Connecticut. Beginning with a saddlery business, he founded Phelps, Dodge & Co. in 1833 as an export-import business with his sons-in-law as ...
, a locally prominent industrialist who founded the Ansonia Brass Works, and for whom the city is named. The building was built on land purchased by Stokes, and was completed in 1892. It was not formally turned over to the city for four years, over disagreements between the family and the city over control of the library and the need for a maintenance fund. A major addition was made to the building's southern end in 1960, designed by O.C.S. Zircoli of Bridgeport
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Is ...
.[
]
See also
*
References
External links
Official website
{{authority control
National Register of Historic Places in New Haven County, Connecticut
Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Romanesque Revival architecture in Connecticut
Library buildings completed in 1892
Libraries in New Haven County, Connecticut
Public libraries in Connecticut
Buildings and structures in Ansonia, Connecticut