Forbes Window Replacement Application
COMMUNITY PRESERVATION
PROJECT APPLICATION COVER SHEET
I: Project Information
Project Title:
Forbes Library Window Replacement
Project Summary:
This project would replace the 130 year old windows in the library with functional,
energy efficient, historically compliant windows.
Estimated start date: _September 2013__________ Estimated completion date:
May 2014___________
CPA Program Area (check all that apply):
Open Space X Historic Preservation
Community Housing Recreation
II: Applicant/Developer Information
Contact Person and or/primary applicant: Janet Moulding
Property Owner (if applicable):City of Northampton
Organization (if applicable): Forbes Library
Mailing Address: 20 West Street
Daytime phone #:587-1016 Fax #: 587-1015
E-mail address & Website: jmoulding@forbeslibrary.org / www.forbeslibrary.org
III: Budget Summary
Total budget for project: $301,821
CPA funding request: $301,821
CPA request as percentage of total budget: 100%
Applicant’s Signature: Janet Moulding
Date Submitted: ____2/4/13________________________
Community Preservation Committee Application
February 2013
Forbes Library
20 West Street
Northampton, MA 01060
2
Table of Contents
Introduction
History of Forbes Library
Special Collections
Forbes Library Today
Architect’s Report
Cost Estimate
3
“There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free
Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office nor
wealth receives the slightest consideration.”
Andrew Carnegie
The Trustees of Forbes Library request that the Community Preservation Committee fund
the Forbes Library window restoration project which is presented here.
This project started in 2005 as an ambitious plan to completely secure the building
envelope. Two of the Forbes Library building’s four elevations were cleaned, repaired, and
repointed in city-funded projects completed in June 2006. With Community Preservation Funds
the two remaining elevations and the roof were repaired and rebuilt in 2009. All that remains to
complete the project is to replace the aged windows with historically acceptable, energy efficient
windows and window frames.
The library’s 138 windows are of original construction. Many of the windows no longer
close securely, are leaky, and have little insulation value. Leakage around the window frames has
penetrated the library’s exterior load bearing walls, which if allowed to continue, will eventually
compromise the restoration work already done. Much energy is wasted through these single pane
windows as the building is heated in the winter and cooled in the summer. During cold weather
many of the windows ice over, a clear indication of how much the temperature and humidity of
the interior is affected. This is especially serious in the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and
Museum and in the Hampshire Room for Local History, both of which house valuable and
rd
irreplaceable archives of the history of Hampshire County and the 23 President of the United
States. There are photos included with this application of ice on the inside of the CCPLM
windows during January 2013.
New windows, as requested in this proposal, would meet state building code energy
standards and historic preservation standards as befits this historic building, using insulated low
E advanced Argon gas glass or better to help preserve the historic collections inside the building,
insure the integrity of the wall masonry, and greatly improve energy efficiency.
4
History of Forbes Library
Forbes Library was the gift to Northampton by Judge Charles E. Forbes, who left a
bequest to the city to build a public library. The Last Will and Testament of Charles Edward
Forbes, signed September 25, 1876, can be seen at the library or online at
www.forbeslibrary.org.
Pertinent passages from the Will of Charles Edward Forbes are below:
All the rest, residue and remainder of my property and estate, real, personal and mixed,
wherever situate or of whatever the same may consist, I give, devise and bequeath . . . for the
purchase of a site and the erection of a building, or the purchase of a building for the
accommodation of a Public Library, and for the purchase of books, &c., to be placed therein for
the use of the Inhabitants of said town of Northampton and their successors forever. . . . All
purchases of real estate under this Will to be evidenced by deed or deeds conveying a fee simple
to said trustees, their heirs and assigns, in legal form, duly acknowledged and recorded, but in
trust always and for the trusts and uses indicated in this Will.
(Section 9, Pages 3 & 4)
It is my design to form a library of works of science and the arts in their broadest
acceptation, of ancient and modern history, and of the literatures of our own and other nations .
. . It has been my aim to place within reach of the inhabitants of a town, in which I have
lived long and pleasantly, the means of learning, if they are disposed to learn, the marvelous
development of modern thought, and to enable them to judge of the destiny of the race on
scientific evidence, rather than on metaphysical evidence alone. The importance of the education
of the people cannot be overrated.
(Section 9, Page 7)
The above bequest for the benefit of the Inhabitants of said Northampton is made on the
following conditions:
1.That the town by vote shall accept said bequest within three years after the Probate of
this will, and further
2.By a vote duly recorded and legally binding, the inhabitants of said town in their
corporate capacity as a town shall obligate themselves and their successors
3.To pay all expenses necessarily incurred in about the management and administration of
the affairs of said library over and above the income derived from the Aid Fund.
4.To keep the library building in repair, and to rebuild the same in case of its destruction
by fire or other casualty.
5.To erect or provide such other building or buildings as may hereafter become necessary
in consequence of the enlargement of the library.
If said town of Northampton refuses or neglects for the period of three years from and
after the probate of this will to perform the above named conditions on their part to be
performed, and to assume the obligations above mentioned, then and in that event, I hereby
5
revoke all bequests herein before made for the benefit of said town, and declare the same to be
null, void and of none effect
(Section 9, Page 9)
Should the trustees nominated and appointed by this will, or their successors in said
trust, upon due inquiry, made as expeditiously as can be conveniently done after my decease,
become satisfied that a majority of the inhabitants of said town of Northampton are disposed to
accept the above bequest upon the conditions thereto annexed, it is recommended that an act be
obtained from the Legislature incorporating said library, and giving to the town in their
corporate capacity the requisite power and authority, by vote or votes duly passed in legal town
meeting and recorded among the records of said town, to adopt and execute the provisions of
this will, and to perform all the conditions and to assume all the obligations therein mentioned,
and to be forever bound to the performance thereof.
(Section 9, page 10)
The people of Northampton were “disposed to accept the above bequest upon the
conditions thereto annexed” and Forbes Library in Northampton was incorporated by an act of
the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in April and May of 1881.
Crown Jewel of Northampton
“The Castle on the Hill”
Forbes Library was designed by architect William C. Brocklesby of Hartford,
Connecticut, in a style known as Richardsonian Romanesque, named after the work of Henry
Hobson Richardson, the designer of Trinity Church in Boston. This style is characterized by the
use of contrasting light and dark color stones (granite and sandstone), massive rounded arches
6
resting on short, squat columns and complex roof systems. The library was dedicated on October
23, 1894.
According to the First Annual Report of the Trustees in 1895:
"After January 1, 1891, and a visit to many large libraries the trustees proceeded to erect the
building. It is built of Milford granite with Longmeadow sandstone trimming, is estimated to
accommodate 400,000 volumes, is unusually well adapted for library purposes, is an ornament
to the city and praised by all visitors. Its cost was $113,993.48..."
One unique feature of the Forbes Library is the use of Guastavino arches (built by the
Guastavino brothers of New York) which had also been used in the Boston Public Library. These
brick arches support the first and second floors from modular units or bays of 17 x 14.8 feet.
Judge Forbes had mandated in his will that the building be fireproof. The Guastavino arches are
part of this safety design and are constructed of brick covered with white clay tile.
7
"The crowning glory of inflammability was the roof." Erected by the Berlin Iron Bridge
Company, it was constructed entirely of steel girders covered with slate roofing tiles. Each
separate slate was tied through with a nail by the roofer on the outside and was then twisted
around a support rod by a worker inside the roof structure.
Judge Forbes had also insisted that the building be set aside from all other buildings so
that there was no danger of it catching fire from a nearby structure. Thus, the building stands
alone on a lovely, raised, park-like lot, and was called by many residents of Northampton "the
castle on the hill."
Forbes Library’s Special Collections
The Forbes Library building is not only historic in its own right, but also houses many
important collections that can truly be called “The Treasures of Northampton”. The library is
conscientious in fulfilling its trust to both preserve and provide access to the invaluable and
irreplaceable records of Northampton’s history and culture. The Forbes collections include the
Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum, Hampshire County local history archives,
and Northampton related works of art.
Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum:
Forbes Library is the largest existing source of primary material on Calvin Coolidge and the
only public library in the United States to hold a presidential collection.
The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library & Museum contains materials documenting the
private life of Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), beginning with his birth and formative years in
Vermont, his student days at Amherst College, and his years as a young lawyer in Northampton.
Exhibits and manuscripts, written and pictorial, cover his political career from Northampton to
Boston to the White House and his post-presidential years as a Northampton resident. The
Collection also includes materials of a similar nature related to the life of Grace Goodhue
Coolidge (1879-1957).
8
The Coolidge Collection was established in 1920, when Calvin Coolidge gave documents and
memorabilia to Forbes Library. Coolidge continued giving materials to the Library throughout
the remainder of his life. At the end of his administration, he sent his personal library from the
White House to the Forbes Library, in Northampton, Massachusetts; included were the well-
known Howard Chandler Christy portraits of Calvin Coolidge and his wife, Grace. The final
impetus for the permanent home of the Coolidge Collection came in 1956. Acting upon the
request of Grace Coolidge and the Trustees of Forbes Library, the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts granted funds to establish a "Calvin Coolidge Memorial Room" as a separate
entity within the library.
9
The Coolidge collection consists of manuscripts, speeches, letters, videos, recordings,
microfilms, the official presidential papers and the personal papers of President Coolidge, tapes,
off-the-record press conferences, photographs, paintings, scrapbooks, broadsides, artifacts,
furniture, and the famous electric exercise horse.
Hampshire Room for Local History
The Hampshire Room collection contains unique and irreplaceable resources for scholars,
local historians, researchers, and genealogists.
Highlights of the Hampshire Room collections include:
Account books and town papers and manuscripts
Maps dating back to the 1700s
The Walter Corbin Collection of turn-of-the-century Northampton and Florence
photographs and genealogy materials
The Judd Manuscript of 62 volumes of records of local interest by Gazette editor,
Sylvester Judd (1789-1860)
All existing rolls of film taken by Daily Hampshire Gazette photographers
Primary source Jonathan Edwards material
The Elbridge Kingsley (1842-1918) collection of photographs, paintings, and woodcuts
Over one hundred Audubon prints from the 1860 Bein edition
Original World War I and II posters
th
Seth Pomeroy’s Journal, a pocket-sized, parchment-bound diary of his two 18 Century
military campaigns against the French
Thousands of early images of Northampton and surrounding towns in various formats
including stereoscopes of local views and events such as the Mill River Flood
10
Fine Arts
Forbes Library continuously displays important historical and current art works of
significance to Northampton.
The Forbes Library holds a substantial collection of paintings, sculpture, engravings,
photographs, and other works by local, regional and nationally-known artists of the 18th to the
21st centuries. Among the art on permanent display are works by:
Leonard Baskin
W.H.W. Bicknell
Lewis Bryden
Howard Chandler Christy
Lionel Delevingne
Ralph Earl
Robin Freedenfeld
Bessie Bell Hawkes
Elbridge Kingsley
Samuel F.B. Morse
Barry Moser
Elliot Offner
Alan James Robinson
Stan Sherer
Dwight William Tryon
The Angel of Hadley, or The Perils of Our Forefathers, by Frederic A. Chapman
11
Forbes Library Today
The only public institution that offers something for all residents
Forbes Library is the one Northampton public institution that genuinely serves all of the
residents of Northampton. It offers materials, services, information and programs for every age
from infants to elders in nursing homes, every economic group from the homeless to the very
wealthy, every educational level from those just learning to read to scholarly researchers. Forbes
offers entertainment, community in the form of educational programs, fun events and meeting
rooms for residents to use, homework resources, internet access, art exhibits, one of a kind and
irreplaceable genealogy and Hampshire County archives, and the Presidential Library and
Museum for Northampton’s local son who went on to become President of the United States. It
offers all who enter the gratification of knowing that the magnificent building with its glorious
interior is theirs as a citizen of Northampton. Everyone is welcomed, everyone is valued and
everyone is offered, in Judge Forbes’ words, “the means to learning.”
The statistics below show how important Forbes Library is to the Northampton
community and how much its services are used:
An average of about 900 people walk through the doors of Forbes Library every day that
it is open.
18,192 Northampton residents have active Forbes Library cards.
403,449 books, ebooks, ebook readers, videos, cds, audio books, museum passes, and
musical instruments were checked out to patrons at Forbes Library last year.
56,835 reference questions were answered by Forbes Library staff last year.
7,612 adults attended programs at Forbes Library last year.
12,201 children attended programs at Forbes Library last year.
Forbes Library meeting rooms were used 502 times by community members last year.
57 local artists displayed their art in the Hosmer Gallery at Forbes Library last year.
The public internet computer terminals were used 103,532 times last year and countless
more patrons used the library’s 24/7 free wireless with their own laptops.
Forbes Library is a vital, active community center for all of Northampton, responsive to
the community’s needs and dedicated to service to the public. The library’s 2012 Strategic Plan
based its goals directly upon feedback from an extensive public survey conducted by the library
in preparation for the plan. The annual strategic plan update reports the many completed projects
and activities to fulfill the wishes of the Northampton community. These documents are
available at the library or online at www.forbeslibrary.org.
12
“. . . libraries are the great symbols of the freedom of the mind . . . they
are essential to the functioning of a democratic society.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
One look at the Forbes Library building is sufficient to realize that it is a
magnificent and irreplaceable treasure to Northampton. The building alone would warrant its
preservation and great care. But the library is also an all-encompassing service to Northampton,
an institution that houses special collections uniquely valuable to Northampton and that
genuinely caters to all the residents of Northampton.
Charged as the Community Preservation Committee is to allocate public funds for the
public good, we hope that you will appreciate the importance of making the Forbes Library
building and its collections safe and secure and see the Forbes Library window restoration
project as a highest priority.
13