Public Library, Bristol, Conn. 103.

Public Library, Bristol, Conn. 103.

Image of a stately Neo-Classical institutional building commanding the intersection of tree-shaded streets. This image is part of a series made by one of the three Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company photographers assigned to cover New England or upstate New York. The quest for images that would be saleable as postcards resulted in the documentation of small towns and small town life at the turn of the 20th century. As the photos were shot, the glass plates were promptly sent back to Belfast, Maine, and processed into postcards at the printing plant on High Street. Here the Eastern photographer has paused to capture the arresting sight of the grand public library in Bristol, where it sits not on a spacious lot, but right along the street. The shot reflects a time when cities commissioned great, architect-designed buildings not only to edify the population but also to reflect a city or town's civic pride. Here, the community commissioned the New York architect Wilson Potter, whose practice specialized in academic structures, to design the city's library in 1906. It replaced a large house which had served as the earlier library building since 1892. [source: historicbuildingsct.com]