Howard Whittemore Memorial Library, Naugatuck, Connecticut:
At 380 Church Street is the most treasured civic building in Naugatuck. Howard Whittemore Memorial Library is an architectural masterpiece and an ode to history. It was completed in 1894 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 as part of Naugatuck Center Historic District. Both the library and the adjacent Tuscan-style town green were gifts from industrialist John Howard Whittemore, Sr. (1837–1910).
Influenced by travels in Italy and the “City Beautiful” movement, Whittemore sought to transform his factory town into what he called, “an American Siena.” The library was built in memory of his son, John Howard Whittemore Jr. (1872–1887), who died at age 15. It marked the first of twelve major civic gifts Whittemore made to the community, including schools, churches, parks, and infrastructure.
The original slate roof and a wooden cupola were lost to 20th-century storms and replaced with red clay tiles (matching the Mediterranean hill-town effect that Whittemore wanted). The interior remains virtually unscathed: quarter-sawn oak paneling, green Connemara marble pilasters, Sienese-style mosaic floors, and original bronze-and-crystal chandeliers.
Encircling the rotunda frieze in gold letters is Emily Dickinson’s poem “A Book”:
He ate and drank the precious words,
His spirit grew robust;
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his frame was dust.
He danced along the dingy days,
And this bequest of wings
Was but a book. What liberty
A loosened spirit brings!
His son, Harris Whittemore Sr. (1864–1927), succeeded as company president in 1899, expanding operations while championing conservation. He planted over 425,000 trees, helped establish the Connecticut Forest and Park Commission, and donated lands for Naugatuck State Forest and Kettletown State Park. Harris also gained notability as an early aviator.
His wife, Julia Spencer Whittemore, founded the Naugatuck Women’s Study Club, which met regularly in the library. Julia’s older sister, Ellen Spencer, served as the library’s first librarian from 1894 to about 1914. In 1915, the Women’s Study Club erected a bronze plaque honoring Ellen’s twenty years of sharing, “the golden way through books to happiness.”
