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The Barney Library
The Barney Memorial Library:
Its Origins Over Two Centuries,
by Jean Johnson
Part II
In 1890, the Farmington Library Co. was housed in the newly built Town Hall,
located
where the fire station is now, at 76 Main Street. From
Farmington Magazine,
1901.
In Part I, we traced the many origins of the Sarah Brandegee Memorial
Library of today and the wanderings of the book collections that comprised the
town’s various libraries. From 1795 until 1890, six different library
organizations were housed in seven librarian’s homes, the Old Academy, the stone
store, and the town clerk’s office for 35 years. Finally, the nomadic library
moved into the new 1890 Town Hall, then to Main Street opposite the First Church
of Christ, Congregational. Occupying a ground-floor room, the then-named
Farmington Library Co. was no longer a shareholder organization, though
subscription memberships were still a method for buying new books.
We begin Part II in 1882, eight years before the Town Hall was built, when Julia
Brandegee, the younger sister of Sarah Brandegee Barney (a Miss Porter’s School
graduate) took a precedent-breaking step. She opened her own library—she, a
single Farmington woman, instead of a company of men. Julia was also the aunt of
Danford Newton Barney, the successful young businessman of Part I. Ann Arcari,
Farmington Room librarian and president of the Historical Society, reported in
her research that Julia’s motives were not obvious, since the subscription
Farmington Library Co. had been securely settled in the town clerk’s office for
27 years. “Perhaps she felt there should be a free library … or that the
existing library did little to attract young people, as most titles were
ponderous tomes on religion or morals,” Arcari said.
Portrait of Julia Brandegee by Robert Brandegee,
Barney Library.
Brandegee first launched her library in a friend’s house
with 14 books, geared to the interests of the Boys Club. Before long she owned
400 books and bought an old shoemaker’s shop on Farmington Avenue (opposite High
Street).
Julius Gay described the library as “a tenement house …
transformed by the subtle magic of a genial philosophy into the … Tunxis
Library. Entertaining books fill every nook and corner and antique furniture
ranged around the vast old fireplace welcomes readers young and old to a free
and healthful entertainment.”
Both sister Sarah Brandegee Barney and nephew D. N. Barney
organized a support organization for Julia — the Village Library Co., which also
included Sarah Porter. This helped Julia to achieve the inviting home-like
library, shown in her nephew D. N. Barney’s photograph (from Julius Gay’s
history) below.
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D. Newton Barney’s photograph of Julia Brandegee’s Tunxis Library,
from Farmington, Connecticut: The Village of Beautiful Homes, 1906.
The Farmington Library Co., operating in the small, crowded
town clerk’s office, quickly reacted to Julia’s enterprise. Thomas Porter, the
librarian, visited her with this greeting, recorded in several town histories:
“I want to know what you are doing to run out the town library.” Chris Bickford,
in Farmington in Connecticut, adds, “He told her there were not enough people
paying 50 cents a year to borrow books to cover his salary of $5.”
Undeterred, Julia enlarged her library with her family’s
support, accepting book and money donations, stacking shelves with bound
magazine volumes, encyclopedias and popular books for all ages. She opened two
afternoons and evenings, rather than only on Sunday, a day of rest, attracting
women and students, in addition to Sunday’s male businessmen and workers. In
contrast to the plain design of the Farmington Library Co.’s room in the town
clerk’s office, Julia “usually had a fire going … and served tea and cookies,
especially to the girls,” according to Ann Arcari’s research.
Julius Gay summarized Julia’s impact on the children: “She
wanted all … to have food for their minds as well … [as] their bodies. ... For
some years, she and her sister Sarah Brandegee Barney gave a Christmas party for
the village children, with a huge Christmas tree and a live Santa Claus …
presents for all—pockets of nuts and candies, a sweater for school … and a good
book for each.”
Julia Brandegee’s Tunxis Library, once a shoemaker’s shop,
from The Village of Beautiful Homes, 1906.
When the new Town Hall was built in 1890 on Main Street
(where the fire station is now), Julia Brandegee’s Tunxis Free Library merged
with the Farmington Library Co. from the town clerk’s office, once represented
by the fearful librarian Tom Porter. Julia was named librarian, and her Tunxis
Library contributed 1,500 books. The other, older Farmington Library Co. added
several hundred of its most valued books. With the merger of the two libraries,
Julia’s philosophy influenced the new entity. It became a free library like her
Tunxis one, and books appealing to young people and women were purchased, as
well as literature to feed readers’ minds.
Surprisingly, Julia Brandegee’s Tunxis Library building,
the old shoemaker’s shop and tenement (rented) house, survives today in the
Brick Walk Shops, according to Arline Whitaker’s research. She and her husband,
Lucius (Buzz) Whitaker, own the shops. It was originally bought by the
preservationist Dr. Walls Bunnel, moved across Farmington Avenue and renovated
into the Yarn Winder Shop. Today it is attorney Christian Hoheb’s office.
The old Tunxis Library building, now in the Brick Walk Shops,
Farmington Village.
The merger of the Tunxis and Farmington Library Co. and the
move into the Town Hall created a boom in membership, donations and the size of
the collection, Bickford writes. By 1905, the shelves held 5,000 books and
membership reached 300. Despite this growth, Julia Brandegee dreamed of seeing a
separate library building, and in 1901 “mention was made of her hopes to live
long enough to see the books … moved on to the shelves of a new fireproof
structure.” Brandegee’s nephew D. N. Barney responded to her wish. In 1909, a
year after his mother’s death, he began planning to construct a library as a
memorial to her.
Portrait of D. Newton Barney, by Robert
Brandegee. Barney Library.
Betty Coykendall researched the complicated history of
Barney’s role in the realization of the Sarah Brandegee Memorial Library. She
writes that it began with Sarah Porter’s codicil in her 1900 will, in which she
left land to seven trustees. The property was to become “a public park to be
called the Village Green.” It had already been purchased “with funds …
contributed … by a number of my former pupils.” Porter also left $3,000, the
income of which was to pay for maintaining and improving the property, the park
opposite the former Elm Tree Inn on Farmington Avenue. The trustees were to
apply for a state charter for a tax-exempt corporation to own the land. Oddly,
they were also to ask whether a library on the land would violate the will. The
legislature approved the corporation and added three trustees: D. N. Barney,
Waldo Chase and Alfred Pope of the Hill-Stead. The corporation was to be named
the Farmington Village Green and Library Association (the FVGLA). Barney was
elected president. In 1909, Barney’s offer to construct a public library was
presented to the new association. He would donate $25,000 if the trustees would
match it within one year, but the group failed to do that.
Barney, the astute entrepreneur, invented another solution.
He bought the First Church’s land, between it and the 1904 Center School (now
Noah Wallace), in a special deal in which he arranged to lease the part where he
planned to build the library. He cleared the plot of the buildings there: the
horse sheds for those who rode or drove carriages to church, and the Old
Academy, which was moved up to the corner of Hart Street, where it stands now
(the former Art Guild building).
The Old Academy building, which was moved to make way for the Barney Library.
Barney also applied to the state to expand the FVGLA’s
territory to the entire town, thus enabling the group to accept the building he
was constructing, which was outside Sarah Porter’s Village Green. His request
was approved, so in 1918 Barney gave to the library association his “free public
library,” to be named the Sarah Brandegee Barney Memorial Library. He also
donated 200 shares of U.S. Steel preferred stock for its upkeep, worth $20,000
then. A special library committee of nine trustees was added to the basic FVGLA,
including his wife, Laura Dunham Barney, and Julia Brandegee; the committee of
nine members included five women.
Other donations arrived shortly. Trustee Whitney Palache
established a fund for history books in memory of his son James, who had died in
World War I. Barney again gave stock, 100 shares of his company, the Hartford
Electric Light Company (HELCO). In the 1930s, the FVGLA acquired the library
land that Barney had leased from the church. By 1946, the library discovered
that its investment income alone couldn’t support its needs, although the town
provided backup funds. To rise to the fiscal need without seeking more taxes,
the association formed a fund-raising committee called the Friends of the
Farmington Library, an official arm of the FVGLA that raises more than $30,000
annually.
In 1959, two vital events occurred. The West End Library,
active in Unionville since 1894, was persuaded by Raymond Brooks and D. N.
Barney’s son, Austin Dunham Barney, to merge with the FVGLA, becoming a branch
of the Village Library. In that same year, a children’s wing was added to the
Farmington Village building.
The 1980s brought an even more dramatic change. The FVGLA,
under Lucius (Buzz) Whitaker, formed a building committee to raise $2.5 million,
with town support, to build a larger, modern public library on Monteith Drive
and to renovate the Village Library. With the opening of the new main Farmington
Library in 1983, the Village Library became the branch library. In 1999,
however, it was named simply the Barney Library. From 2001 through 2003, while
the main Farmington Library was closed for renovation and updating, the Barney
served the whole town as its only library.
Today, in 2008, the 90-year-old neoclassical building needs
$3 million in renovations and modern technological changes to fulfill its
mission “as a branch library and a community arts and history center.” Basic
needs include fire stairs, elevator service, a children’s activity room, energy
efficiency, and electrical and general repairs.
The library association has sought private support, as well
as assistance through a $1 million bond approved by taxpayers in a referendum on
Nov. 4, 2008. A campaign has been waged to assure Farmington that its historic
library and cultural center will live to welcome us and our children and their
children, reminding us of our special heritage. Meanwhile, the Sarah Brandegee
Barney Library today is creating an exciting heritage for all of us, children
and adults, in its lively educational and arts programs.
The author wishes to thank all the researchers mentioned
for their contributions, and the professional help of Jane Maciel, Kathy Lescoe
and Susan Porter at the Barney Library.
Barney Library Program Statement (2008)
For each of the past three years, the Barney Library has
presented more than 325 programs with an average yearly attendance of 6,000
people, spanning ages from six weeks to 95. Seventy percent of the library’s
programs are offered for children, and 30 percent target the adult audience.
Children studying insects at the Barney Library.
Children’s activities include infant, toddler and parent groups,
preschool story hours, school-age book talks, class visits, craft workshops,
cooking demonstrations, literacy games, movies and seasonal celebrations.
Special guests have included puppeteers, magicians, musicians, trained animals
and clowns.
The calendar of adult events has featured computer lessons, book discussions,
author talks, travelogues, musical concerts, wildlife experts, theatrical
performances, gardening enthusiasts, health presentations, dance demonstrations,
movies, and speakers from other countries.
In addition, the library offers library services to individuals who are
homebound, as well as practice English sessions for speakers of other languages.
The Barney Memorial
Library, Part I
The Farmington Historical Society, P.O. Box 1645, Farmington, CT 06034
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