Dansville Library is a historic

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

located at Dansville in

Livingston County, New York Livingston County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 61,834. Its county seat is Geneseo. The county is named after Robert R. Livingston, who helped draft the Declaration of Independence and ...

. It is a large two story Neoclassical style frame structure. It is dramatically enhanced by a pedimented, giant

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

covering its full width. The portico features four

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

columns, an elaborate

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

with

triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...

s and rosettes, a modillion

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

, and a semi-elliptical fan decoration in the cornice. The earliest section was built in 1823 as a private home for Joshua Shepard (1780–1829). The Shepard family donated the house for use as a library in 1923. ''See also:'' In 2011 a renovation of the building was undertaken in order to bring the facilities of the library up to modern expectations of technological ability and handicap access. A new wing was added to the southeast end of the building, dubbed the Saunders wing after the beneficence of local business mogul E. Philip SaundersSee also:

E. Philip Saunders College of Business Saunders College of Business (or SCB) (formerly known as The E. Philip Saunders College of Business) is one of eleven colleges at Rochester Institute of Technology and is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business In ...

and his wife Carol. The interior of the original Shepard building was fully remodeled while the exterior received needed repair and upkeep. It 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 artistic v ...

in 1977 and it is a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

in the Dansville Downtown Historic District.

References

External links

Dansville Public Library - Dansville, NY
Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Neoclassical architecture in New York (state) Houses completed in 1823 Buildings and structures in Livingston County, New York Historic district contributing properties in New York (state) National Register of Historic Places in Livingston County, New York {{LivingstonCountyNY-NRHP-stub