The Gordon-Nash Library is a private non-profit library at 69 Main Street in

New Hampton, New Hampshire New Hampton is a town in Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,377 at the 2020 census. A winter sports resort area, New Hampton is home to George Duncan State Forest and to the New Hampton School, a private prepara ...

. Founded in 1887, the library is "the only private

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

library in New Hampshire that is open to all residents, students and sojourners,"Gordon-Nash Library website
/ref> and effectively functions as New Hampton's public library. It is housed in an 1895

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

building that 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 1988.

Architecture and history

The Gordon-Nash Library is located in the village center of New Hampton, on the south side of Main Street opposite the

New Hampton School New Hampton School is an independent college preparatory high school in New Hampton, New Hampshire, United States. It has 305 students from over 30 states and 22 countries. The average class size is eleven, and the student-faculty ratio is five t ...

. The building consists of the original 1895 building, to which several additions have been made to the rear. The original building is a single-story masonry structure, built out of gold-colored bricks and covered by a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

. It has a three-part front facade, whose defining element is a central projecting hip-roof section. It has a central arched entrance, with a brownstone surround including

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s and an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

above the keystoned arch. The outer left section has three

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s sharing a

brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Type ...

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...

, which are separated from

transom Transom may refer to: * Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar * Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet * Operation Tran ...

-like windows by a similar header. The outer right section only has square windows in the transom positions. The library was established on paper in 1887 by Stephen Gordon Nash, whose childhood home had been home for a time to a private subscription library founded in 1818. Nash died in 1894, having purchased land for the library building, but made no further steps toward creating the institution. In his will, he dedicated $10,000 for the construction of a building, and left the residue of his estate as an endowment for its maintenance. The building was erected in 1895 to a design by James E. Fuller of

Fuller & Delano Fuller & Delano was an architectural firm in Worcester, Massachusetts, active from 1878 until 1942. It originally consisted of architects James E. Fuller and Ward P. Delano. The firm designed more than 20 buildings that were later listed on the U ...

, architects based in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

. It was the first purpose-built library building in

Belknap County Belknap County () is a county in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. As of the 2020 census, the population was 63,705. The county seat is Laconia. It is located in New Hampshire's Lakes Region, slightly southeast of the state's geographic center. ...

References

External links

Gordon-Nash Library website
{{NRHP in Belknap County, New Hampshire Library buildings completed in 1895 Renaissance Revival architecture in New Hampshire Libraries in Belknap County, New Hampshire Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire National Register of Historic Places in Belknap County, New Hampshire New Hampton, New Hampshire

Architecture and history

See also

References

External links