The Howland Cultural Center, formerly known as Howland Library, is located on Main Street ( New York State Route 52 Business) in

Beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

, New York, United States. It is an ornate brick building designed by

Richard Morris Hunt Richard Morris Hunt (October 31, 1827 – July 31, 1895) was an American architect of the nineteenth century and an eminent figure in the history of architecture of the United States. He helped shape New York City with his designs for the 1902 ...

in the 1870s. In 1973 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 ...

. Hunt was commissioned by his brother-in-law, Joseph Howland, to design a home for a

subscription library A subscription library (also membership library or independent library) is a library that is financed by private funds either from membership fees or endowments. Unlike a public library, access is often restricted to members, but access rights ca ...

he donated to the city. The completed building has much in common with the

Stick style The Stick style was a late-19th-century American architectural style, transitional between the Carpenter Gothic style of the mid-19th century, and the Queen Anne style that it had evolved into by the 1890s. It is named after its use of linear " ...

summer homes in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, United States. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and nort ...

, that Hunt designed at this early stage of his career. Some of its design elements have been compared to Norwegian vernacular architecture. The interior was not complete in its current form until almost the end of the century. Except for some upgrades to its utilities, it has remained largely intact since then. Throughout the 1920s it was one of only two remaining public subscription libraries in the state. In response to a donor's

bequest A devise is the act of giving real property by will, traditionally referring to real property. A bequest is the act of giving property by will, usually referring to personal property. Today, the two words are often used interchangeably due to thei ...

, the library became free at the end of that decade. Almost 50 years later, the library moved out when it outgrew the building. Since then it has been used as a cultural center, hosting various visual and performing arts events.

Building

The building is located at the east end of downtown Beacon, at the corner of Main Street and Tioronda Avenue, just west of where Churchill Street forks off to cross

Fishkill Creek Fishkill Creek (also Fish Kill, from the Dutch ''vis kille'', for "fish creek") is a tributary of the Hudson River in Dutchess County, New York, United States. At U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dat ...

. The blocks to the west and north are urban and densely developed with larger

mixed-use Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions ...

buildings, on the south side of the street. A large church is just across Tioronda from the Howland. To the south, across Van Nydeck Avenue, is a mostly wooded area with a few houses. The Madam Brett Homestead, a 1709 stone house also listed on the Register, is near the west end of the block. Another listed building, Beacon's

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, is a block and a half west along Main Street.

Exterior

The building itself is a two-story three-by-five-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

brick structure on a foundation of

bluestone Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of natural dimension stone, dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * diabase, dolerites in Tasmania, ...

and

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

quarried A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

at nearby Breakneck Ridge. Its first story is faced in brick; the second in

polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery, or sculpture in multiple colors. When looking at artworks and ...

fishscale shingles. Atop is a six-

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d roof covered in Delaware slate pierced by a brick chimney on the west side. On the first story the foundation is capped with a granite

water table The water table is the upper surface of the phreatic zone or zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with groundwater, which may be fresh, saline, or brackish, depending on the loc ...

. The east (front) face has arched double two-over-two double-hung

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s and central main entrance are set in slightly recessed arched panels trimmed with patterns of black and buff brick. The tops of the panels are

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

led. Narrow side panels between the window panels and corners have a simple cross design in black and buff brick corresponding to the top of the window arches. Six wooden pillars flanking the main entrance support a projecting bay on the second story, with a small hood sheltering the entrance steps. The second story as a whole is set off from the lower level by another water table. Its windows are narrow, tall two-over-two double-hung sash above fluted panels. They extend above the roofline, where they are topped with

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other vertical sides ...

s giving them the appearance of dormers. Wood painted red trims the shingles. The central window has tall, narrow, two-over-four double-hung sash. Its face has a half-timbered appearance, although the section on either side of the windows is faced in

clapboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of those terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'', in modern Am ...

rather than

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

. Above it is a two-paned semicircular

lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', 'little moon') is a crescent- or half-moon–shaped or semi-circular architectural space or feature, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be ...

window. The bay is topped with a steeply pitched gabled roof and

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

. On the side elevations, there are two two-over-two double-hung sash windows in the east bays with a similar treatment as the front windows. Two gables pierce the south face. The smaller one on the north has two-over-two double-hung sash with another half-timbered face in the gable. Its larger counterpart on the south has a large paired window of one-over-one double-hung sash with smaller flanking windows. Above it is a tympanum set with intricate

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support th ...

. A similar window is located opposite; it has no smaller window closer to the east.

Interior

The interior of the building is a large open space. Floors are of English cane felt overlaid with hemlock, to dampen sound, and topped with strips of Georgia pine. A second-story gallery with a

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

railing is supported by carved wooden pillars and wrought iron

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

. Bookshelves are built into the walls and the dado is paneled. Handwrought

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

pillars and hammerbeams support a

ceiling A ceiling is an overhead interior roof that covers the upper limits of a room. It is not generally considered a structural element, but a finished surface concealing the underside of the roof structure or the floor of a story above. Ceilings can ...

. Doors are carved to look like books with pages rising from the middle when closed. Howland Cultural Center interior

Other rooms include a small entryway on the first floor and two small offices. On the second floor are three small rooms. They were originally the librarian's apartment, but are now also used as offices.

History

Joseph Howland, a

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

general and former New York State Treasurer whose Tioronda estate was a mile (1.6 km) south of the building's location in what was then the

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

of Matteawan, commissioned the building from his brother-in-law,

, late in 1871. At the beginning of the next year, a general meeting was held for all those interested in establishing a

. By August the building was complete, and the library opened with a formal ceremony at which Howland transferred the building to the library's board of trustees. Hunt's building followed contemporary

architectural style An architectural style is a classification of buildings (and nonbuilding structures) based on a set of characteristics and features, including overall appearance, arrangement of the components, method of construction, building materials used, for ...

s similar to those of the cottages he was building for wealthy vacationers in

. It most clearly reflects the

and

Picturesque Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year ...

modes. The woodwork around the main entrance also shows hints of the emerging

; there was one more at the gables, but it has been lost. In 1940, a

Federal Writers' Project The Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was a federal government project in the United States created to provide jobs for out-of-work writers and to develop a history and overview of the United States, by state, cities and other jurisdictions. It was ...

guidebook would describe it as "in the Norwegian

chalet A chalet (pronounced in British English; in American English usually ), also called Swiss chalet, is a type of building or house, typical of the Alpine region in Europe. It is made of wood, with a heavy, gently sloping roof and wide, well-su ...

style". It was one of the last libraries to use natural light for its reading room. The original 2,200-volume collection grew quickly, as did the membership. In 1887 electric lighting replaced the original gas lamps. Seven years later, more space was needed, and the upper gallery was added, the last significant change to the building. Some alterations have also been made to the heating system over the years. Even after the village of Matteawan, where it was located, merged with nearby Fishkill Landing at the beginning of the 20th century to become today's city of Beacon, the library remained subscribers-only. In the late 1920s, when it was one of only two such libraries remaining in the state, a wealthy local resident made a

to the library on the condition that it become a free public library. That began in 1929, essentially making it the city's library. In 1942, Nancy Lamont, the second librarian, left the position. She and her predecessor had served a combined 70 years. The library continued to serve the city and its residents from the building until the 1970s, when the growth of the former outpaced the capacity of the latter. In 1976 the library moved to a vacant department store building two blocks west along Main, where it has remained, still called the Howland Library. After the library moved out, the Howland Cultural Center was established to keep the building in use and preserve it. It hosts a variety of visual and performing arts events, as well as public and community meetings. It rents out the building for some events, mostly similar to those it stages itself but also including small weddings. In 2007, the center installed

geothermal heating Geothermal heating is the direct use of geothermal energy for some heating applications. Humans have taken advantage of geothermal heat this way since the Paleolithic era. Approximately seventy countries made direct use of a total of 270 PJ o ...

to cut its energy costs and reduce the use of

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geolog ...

s. A system using water in vertical pipes to be dug 250 feet (76 m) into the earth beneath the center will both heat and cool the building. It heats the building with up 70% more

efficiency Efficiency is the often measurable ability to avoid making mistakes or wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time while performing a task. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without waste. ...

and cools up to 40% more efficiently. In addition it is quieter, enhancing the building's

acoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

References

External links