Area less than one acre NRHP Reference # 94001549 Phone +1 207-665-2505 | Built 1910 (1910) Opened 1910 Added to NRHP 12 January 1995 | |
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Location 1 mi. SW of jct. of ME 26 and ME 232, Bryant Pond, Maine Address 28 S Main St, Bryant Pond, ME 04219, USA Architectural style Colonial Revival architecture Similar West Paris Library, Mexico Public Library, Zadoc Long Free Library, Bryant Pond Town Office, Breau's Too | ||
The Whitman Memorial Library is the public library of Woodstock, Maine. It is located at 28 South Main Street (Maine State Route 26) in the village of Bryant Pond, in a small yet architecturally distinctive Colonial Revival building built at the library's founding in 1910. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
Architecture and history
The library building is a T-shaped wood frame building, set well back from the street on a grassy lot, with a stone wall (dating to the time of the building) and a memorial to the community's World War I soldiers. The building rests on a brick foundation, inside which a full concrete basement was later poured, and has a high-pitch hip roof. The building's main (north-facing) facade is three bays wide, with a central entrance flanked by large single-pane windows. The entrance is sheltered by a gable-roofed portico, supported by slender columns. It has diamond-pane sidelights and transom surrounding a panelled doorway. The interior of the building has retained all of its original woodwork and finish. It is organized in a typical early 20th-century plan, with a central librarian's desk with a reading room on one side and stacks on the other. A full basement was added in 1957.
The library was established by a bequest from longtime local residents Eleanor Bryant Whitman and Alanson M. Whitman, both descendants of early settlers of the area. The bequest required the town to provide land for the library, but provided funds for the construction and filling of the library's shelves.