Brown Public Library

Northfield, Vermont

From the book "Where The Books Are"

Written by Patricia W. Belding,

Potash Book Publishing

Histories of Other Libraries In & Around Central Vermont

George Washington Brown was donor of Northfield's Brown Public library built in the early 1900s on the corner of South Main Street (VT Route 12) and Slate Avenue. The Classical Revival building of red brick with granite trim was completed in 1906 and cost between $20,000 and $25,000.

Before Brown's welcome gift, the town had several libraries starting in 1850 with a small collection set up in the railroad depot. In 1856, the Vermont and Canada Railroad Association library was founded, to be followed by the Northfield library Association in 1871. Librarian Frank Plumley oversaw the library in its location in the train shed over the railroad station. There were 75 shareholders who paid $5 a share, 50 cents yearly dues, and 2 cents for each book they borrowed.

In 1895, Northfield appropriated $50 under the law of 1894 and established the Northfield Free Public Library, dedicated in 1896 and located in the Paine block. In 1897, unusual support came from the dog tax. After a fire destroyed the building, the books were relocated in the Union block.

After another fire in 1904, the library was moved to E.K. Jones's house. The need for a permanent place for the collection was met when Brown offered to build a library in memory of his family. Born and raised in Northfield, he had started his successful career at age 18 working for the Central Vermont Railroad. He left the state, made a fortune in the United Shoe Machinery Company, and became a patron of music in Boston.

After Brown designed the library, the Charles Paine property was acquired and construction began. When the building was dedicated on August 21, 1906, Brown was the main speaker, telling of his birth in the Center Hotel, his boyhood in that neighborhood, and "his earning money, among other ways, carrying passengers to funerals, tolling the bell for deaths and funerals, and driving the hearse." At the age of 12, he "performed the latter service when the remains of the lamented Governor Paine were borne to their last resting place."

Although the building resembles a Carnegie library, the design was totally Brown's creation. Aside from the columned portico, quoins, dentils, and a porthole window, the building has two other attractions unusual in Vermont libraries: lead-paned windows in crosswork or starburst pattern with bull's eye centers, and lamp posts with intriguing three-footed bases.

Features on the inside include cypress woodwork and two working fireplaces, with Brown's portrait hanging over one and a large 1837 landscape of Northfield by Mary Ann Paine over the other. The latter, restored by Tom Clark of Perkinsville in 1977, is an oil painting of the Hudson River School. The children's room in the basement has art with a different flair-- a colorful farm mural brightens the walls.

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