How Our Library Came to Be: The History of the Southington Public Library

By: Emma St. John

​Today, it’s hard to imagine our town without the Southington Public Library. Free and open to all, it’s become an essential community center and service. But at the time of the town’s founding, there was no such institution. It took many dedicated community members, along with centuries of historical development, to get to where we are today.
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The Union Library Society: 1797-1847
​Reverend William Robinson became the pastor of Southington Congregational in 1779. Noting the lack of a library in the town, he wrote to Dr. Trumbull in 1777 about his desire to create one.

Sketch of the second meetinghouse of Southington Congregational, constructed in 1757 and replaced in 1830.

Reverend Robinson was the first person to officially organize a library in Southington. In 1797, the Union Public Library (also called the Union Library Society) was created. It was a small, circulating library housed in the law office of Romeo Lourey. Its collection never exceeded a few hundred volumes, and it was only accessible to paying members.

Private libraries only survive through the sustained interest and funds of their members, and over the decades, the Union Public Library began to struggle. By the 1800s, the library fell into financial duress, until it finally closed in 1847.  

The books left in the collection were distributed ​amongst the members of the library at the time of its dissolution, and Southington no longer had any library to speak of.

​Plantsville Library Association
In the absence of the Union Public Library, a new library association was formed in Southington. The Plantsville Library Association, founded in 1860, was a small private library housed in Cowles Hall, which was located on West Main Street. They started with only 369 volumes in their collection, and shared their space with fraternal organizations in town. Their hours were inconsistent, and they had no official librarian

While the Plantsville Library Association had a collection of books, it did not have a reading room where members could read the books they borrowed. Possibly in response to this need, the local chapter of the YMCA, officially organized in 1868, opened a reading room across the street. There, people could read periodicals, daily newspapers, and books from the Plantsville Library Association. 

Cowles Hall was once located on the top floor of this building at 83 West Main Street in Plantsville. Today, the building is used as a restaurant.

The WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union) helped furnish the room. Local Christian organizations were interested in helping libraries in town because going to the library was seen as an upstanding activity for young men to engage in during their free time.

The Plantsville Library Association officially disbanded in 1892, and the collection was donated to a Sunday School run by Miss L. Jeanette Smith at Plantsville Congregational - and so, once again, Southington was without a library.

The Almost-Library: Charles D. Barnes
It took another decade for a free public library to open in town, but that wasn't because no one wanted one at the time. It seems that around the time of the Plantsville Library Association's decline in 1892, there was one member of Southington who knew that the town needed something more.
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A sergeant in the Civil War, two-time member of the House of Representatives, and the owner of a lumber and feed company in Southington, Charles D. Barnes was that man. He put in his will that a piece of land he owned would go to his wife when he died, and after she died, pass to his son. After his son died, he said the land should be donated to the town of Southington in order to create a public library.

Charles D. Barnes’s will was likely over 10 years old by the time of his actual death in 1903, because his wife had died in 1893, and he referenced his wife as being alive in the will. Also outdated was the need for land for a public library: Southington already had one by the time Barnes died. The age of his will suggests that there was a desire for a public library in Southington long before one actually came to pass.

The Southington Public Library: 1900-1902
A public library finally opened in 1900. It was run out of the Court room of the old Town Hall building, and was overseen by Mrs. Lydia Campbell Sloper as librarian, assisted by Mrs. Eva V. M. Bissell. They had around 1,300 volumes on their shelves, and operated for a short time before the space was deemed inadequate for the collection. Now, finally having a library, the town needed a library building.

Then came the Lucius V. Walkley donation. A local businessman who made his fortune selling paper bags, Lucius V. Walkley offered the town of Southington $3,000 and the plot of land where the Southington Historical Society stands today (amounting to a $5,000 donation). He did this on the condition that the town match his donation to build a public library building.

The Southington Public Library at the time of its opening in 1902.

Several townspeople and local organizations donated to the cause as well. At a town meeting, it was agreed that a special tax would be levied, and the $5,000 to match Walkley's original donation was successfully raised. Construction of the new building started right away.

The building was completed in 1902, modeled after the Erechtheum, an Ionic temple from ancient Athens. The opening ceremony was held in August of that year, and Mrs. Lydia Sloper remained librarian in the new building.
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The Southington Public Library was immediately successful. What was once considered the private hobby of a few became a public service for everyone in Southington. With over 2,000 books in its catalogue at the time of the building's opening, the library was on its way to becoming a fixture of Southington community life.

The Sylvia Bradley Memorial Historical Room: 1930s
A big change occurred in the 1930s for the Southington Public Library through the addition of the Sylvia Bradley Memorial Historical room. Emma Bradley Yeomans Newell, Sylvia's daughter, died in 1929. In her will, she left the town of Southington $5,000 for the expansion of the library to include a historical room named in her mother's honor. Bradley Barnes, Emma's nephew, was on the committee responsible for building the annex. The addition consisted of four rooms: the Historical Room, the book stacks, a room housing magazines, and a museum in the basement. Construction was completed in 1932, and the building was dedicated on June 16th, 1932.

Emma Bradley Yeomans Newell standing with her arm on her mother, Sylvia Bradley, and her nephew, Bradley Barnes, sitting below them.

Through this addition, as well as the hard work of Southington's librarians, the Southington Public Library became a center for local history. Mrs. Eva Bissell, the librarian for 9 years following Mrs. Lydia Campbell Sloper's retirement, spoke at the dedication of the Sylvia Bradley Memorial Historical Room. She took the opportunity to reminisce about the early days of the library, telling the over 300 attendees of the dedication, "It was our aim to make the library useful to the largest number of people, both children and adults."
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Growing Pains: 1950s and 60s

The Southington News, January 21, 1960

As the times changed, so did the library. Mrs. Julia Grinnell, the librarian in the 60s, was central to much of that change. New technologies, such as music records, changed the catalogue of the library. Mrs. Julia Grinnell received several donations of records from the Lions Club in Southington.

But technology wasn't the only thing changing. Ideas of who the library was meant for, and what they were meant to do there, were being challenged. Even though the earliest librarians of the Southington Public Library advocated for children's participation, it was more commonly believed at the time that children were too loud and disruptive to have a place there.

In her 12 years as head librarian, Mrs. Grinnell sought to change that belief. She introduced children's books into the catalogue. She also held "story hours" for children, where she would instruct them on local history, or simply read them a book. She encouraged the presence of children through special events, like working with local schools to have children's history projects put on display in the library.

Grinnell also advocated for an expansion of the library that would better accommodate children and teens. In 1961, a contract was signed to expand the library building, with a budget of $36,000. In this expansion, the basement, formerly used as storage for magazines and periodicals, would be transformed into a children's room.​

Mrs. Julia Grinnell retired in 1966, and was replaced by former Connecticut State Librarian John C. Fogg. Under his supervision, an entirely new library building was constructed in the 1970s, moving across the street to where the current library building stands today. The former library building now houses the Southington Historical Society.
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​Thanks to Mrs. Julia Grinnell, in this tumultuous period, the Southington Public Library was able to evolve into a modern institution that serves every member of the community, big and small.​

Conclusion
Once again, our library is undergoing a period of significant change. What was a brand-new building in the 1970s was, as of this past year, torn down and replaced with a new building standing on the same lot.

The newly constructed library building, completed in 2024.

Southington did not always have a public library. And even when we did, it wasn't always meant for everyone. The services our library offers today must be appreciated and protected, because they are far from being assured. It was the careful planning and hard work of our predecessors that made the library what it is today. ​

It is our responsibility, as the inheritors of our town's history and institutions, to continue their legacy.