Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-05-08
The New State Library.


Fer fifteen years, the subject of the need
of enlarged accommodations for the State
Library at Montpelier has been before the
people Governors have alluded to it in
their messages, commissions have been
appointed to consider and report on the
subject Reports have been made and
bills introduced but nothing decisive
done, till the last Legislature appropriated
$4,000 for fire-proof building for the
State Library, Supreme Court and State
Historical Society.
The construction of the building was
entrusted to an excellent board of com
missioners consisting as finally constitut-
ed, of Governor Pingree, Ex-Governor
Proctor, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Ormsbee,
Judge H. II. Powers, Hon. John i. Ed
wards Senator JustinS Morrill, (who takes
the place of Hon. Frederick Billings, re
signed), and II. A. Huse, Esq, State Ii
brarian.
The consideration of plans for the new
structure was committed by the board to
subcommittee, consisting of Gov.
Pingree, ex Gov. Proctor and Mr.. Huse,
who have been holding meetings, CON
sulting with architects and builders, eX-
aiming plans-a number of which have
been submitted by various architects-and
giving prolonged and careful attention to
the subject. The committee have not, so
far us we are aware, made or authorized
any public announcement of their de
cision; but as the Montpelier papers have
made such announcements and have de-
bated the points at issue, the matter is
now before the public and is a fair subject
for discussion.
One of the first questions to be settled
of course was whether the State should
build separate library building, or
should place the library in an addition to
the State House. In determining this the
matter of convenience, and the matter of
looks, had to be considered. In favor
of a separate building, to be placed some
where between the State House and the
Pavilion hotel, it has been urged, that the
lawyers and judges in attendance on
the terms of court held at Montpelier,
make free use of the State Library. The
law books and volumes of session laws are
taken in considerable numbers from the
library to the Court House, and sometimes
get astray or are injured, or give the
librarian and his assistants some trouble
in keeping track of them. The conven-
fence of the bar and the courts, it is j
tho ught. requires the library to be near or
connected with the Court House and they
would like to have the Court House near
the hotel Many of the lawyers for OBJ
vious reasons, and many citizens of Mont |
pelicr, for reasons not clearly apparent, |
seem to favor a separate building.
On the other hand it has been urged |
that the library Is the first thing to be |
cared for, and shat it was provided by
the State primarily for State uses-that is |
for the use, convenience and instruction
of the Legislature, state officers and citi-
zens attending the legislative sessions -
and that it should therefore be connected
with the State House. This considera-
ton has made it the universal rule
throughout the States of the Union, to place
the State libraries in. the State Houses,
as the Congressional Library is placed in
the Capitol at Washington. There should
of course be strong reasons fora departure
from what universal experience has
adopted as the proper location of a State
Library This point was eXhaustively
considered by a State commission, con
ssting of Governor Horace Fairbanks,
Judge T. p. Redfield and g. G. Benedict,
appointed ten or twelve years ago IIav-
ing before them attractive plans for a
separate structure, and being compare
lively embarrassed by the question of
cost, no limit of expense having been
fixed, they still decided and reported that
the thing to do was to enlarge the State
House and keep the library under its
roof. A similar conclusion, we believe,
has been reached by every commission and
committee that has ever reported on the
sutherland it is, as it seems to us,
sound and wise conclusion.
But the argument in favor of an addi-
ton to the State House, has, been greatly
strengthened, and in fact, as it seems to
us, absolutely closed, by the limited sum
available for the construction of
the new library. The Legislature
distinctly directed that the library
and Court room be built and COM
7leted for the sum named-S36 900 Now
it is simply impossible to build and fur
nish structure suitable for State Ii
brary, to say nothing of the Court room,
for that sum. 1t never has been and cannot
be done The new Billings Library in
this city will cost $4,000; the new library
at Dartmouth college, 100000; the new
town library at Woodstock-a compare
lively small affair-S5O0 900 other public
Libraries of any pretensions to dignity and
taste anywhere from $4,000 to $500, 600 A
square or Oblong box of brick or stone
could be placed on the State House
grounds that would hold the books and
shelter the Court, for $500 but it
would necessarily be an eXcresence and
eyesora. If of size enough to have any
dignity, it would have to be devoid of
architectural ornament. Nobody would
like it, when they got it.
We are not at all surprised, therefore, to
learn that the subcommittee on plan
have recommended to the full board,
plan for a new wing to the State House.
The plan favored by them is one submit
ted by Mr.. Richards of Boston, the archi-
tact who had in chorra tho i'm If