The West Somerville Branch Library is an active library in a historic building at 40 College Avenue in

Somerville, Massachusetts Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 81, ...

, just outside

Davis Square Davis Square is a major intersection in the northwestern section of Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, where several streets meet: Holland Street, Dover Street, Day Street, Elm Street, Highland Avenue, and College Avenue. The name is of ...

. It is an example of

Classical Revival Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...

architecture, built in 1909 with funding support from

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

, and was the city's first branch library. 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 ...

in 1989.

Architecture and history

The West Somerville Branch Library is located on the west side of College Avenue, opposite Morrison Avenue, on the north side of

. It is a -story granite structure, with elaborate

styling. The main facade, facing roughly southeast, is three

bays 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 ...

wide, with a center projection housing the entrance, which is set in a round-arch opening flanked by fluted

Ionic columns The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...

and broad square

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s. The entry columns support a gabled

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

with a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...

ed cornice. The building's corners are

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

ed, and it is capped by a shallow-pitch

hip 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 roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

with a modillioned cornice. On each side of the building is a projecting round bay. The building was designed by

McLean & Wright MacLean, also spelt McLean, is a Scottish Gaelic surname (Mac Gille Eathain, or, Mac Giolla Eóin in Irish Gaelic), Eóin being a Gaelic form of Johannes (John). The clan surname is an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic "Mac Gille Eathain", a ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, and was built in 1906–09 with funding from philanthropist

and the city. It is the city's best example of Classical Revival architecture, also exhibiting Beaux Arts details that were then in fashion. It was the first branch library in Somerville. The library opened in 1909, and is now part of the

Minuteman Library Network Founded first as a cooperative, the Minuteman Library Network (MLN) is today a Library consortium, consortium of over 40+ public or academic library, academic libraries. The network consists of an aggregate collection of over sum 6 million items a ...

system. In the 21st century, it was closed for substantial repairs and to make the building comply with the

Americans with Disabilities Act The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA () is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ...

; the project ceremonially broke ground in April 2019, and the library reopened to the public in July 2021.

References

External links

Branch HoursLibrary Website
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Library buildings completed in 1909 Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Somerville, Massachusetts Libraries in Middlesex County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Somerville, Massachusetts

Architecture and history

See also

References

External links