The Hubbardston Public Library is the public library of
Hubbardston, Massachusetts
Hubbardston is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town population was 4,328. It is situated 18 miles north of Worcester and 53 miles west of Boston; it is distinguished in Massachusetts by be ...
. The library, located at 7 Main Street, serves the town by providing a wide variety of materials, services, and events. It offers Internet access and access to the CWMARS resource-sharing catalog.
The library is housed in one of Hubbardston's most architecturally significant buildings, an 1874 Second Empire/Italianate brick building that also houses the town offices. Construction of the building, and a significant portion of the library's early collection, were made possible through grants and gifts from Hubbardston native
Jonas G. Clark, founder of
Worcester's Clark University
Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in th ...
.
The building was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...
in 1998.
Architecture and building history
The library is located in the village center of Hubbardston, on the west side of Main Street (
Massachusetts Route 68
Route 68 is a south–north state highway in Massachusetts. Its southern terminus is at Route 122A in Holden and its northern terminus is at Route 32 in Royalston. Along the way it intersects Route 2 in Gardner and U.S. Route 202 (US&nbs ...
), north of its junction with Brigham and Elm Streets. It is the most distinctive and architecturally elaborate building in the village, two stories in height, built out of red brick, with granite and white wooden trim, and a slate roof. The center bay of the front facade projects, and is capped by a steeply pitched multicolor slate roof; this was originally crowned with iron cresting, which has been removed. Ground-floor windows are set in rounded openings with stepped granite headers, while second-floor windows are set in segmented-arch openings with bracketed lintels. The central bay has the main entrance recessed in a round-arch opening, with paired round-arch openings on the second level. A gable projects below the main tower roof, above a stone panel in which the name of the building's donor and year of construction are carved.
Prior to the construction of this building, the town of Hubbardston had no buildings in public ownership; its town meetings were held in the local church. It was the town's only public building until the 1980s, when the police station was built. It was designed by Worcester architect
Elbridge Boyden
Elbridge Boyden (1810–1898) was a prominent 19th-century American architect from Worcester, Massachusetts who designed numerous civil and public buildings throughout New England and other parts of the United States. Perhaps his best known works ...
for the donor, Jonas G. Clark, and was built on what had been three house lots, acquired by Clark for the purpose. Clark was probably responsible for bringing in the materials, and the craftsmen that constructed the building, from outside the community, whose other masonry buildings of the period were much simpler.
Since its construction, the building has housed the town's library, town offices, and a community meeting space.
See also
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References
External links
Hubbardston Public Library websiteTown website on the library
{{authority control
Library buildings completed in 1875
Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Libraries in Worcester County, Massachusetts
Public libraries in Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Worcester County, Massachusetts
Hubbardston, Massachusetts