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Community Corner

Two Wanderers Find Homes On Main Street

East Haven's library and town hall moved frequently before settling down.

The East Haven library was born in a second-floor closet of the old Town Hall, which sat across Main Street from what is now the Margaret Tucker Park.

Assisting as midwife in the process was Miss Lottie Street, a great-great-granddaughter of the Rev. Nicholas Street, once pastor of the Old Stone Church.

Threads like these tied together all the major players — library, town hall, church and park — through the generations on Main Street. 

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When East Haven became a chartered town in 1785, residents needed a place to gather to discuss town business. Mrs. Bradley’s parlor had been outgrown and various barns were drafty. They tried out the Old Stone Church for their first official meeting, but the pastor’s insistence on a sermon both before and after the meeting put a damper on that site. 

The next popular choice was Eleazar Hemingway’s Tavern, where liquid refreshment could be had along with rhetoric. The meetings continued to be held in this tavern/stagecoach stop from 1824 until 1833. When Hemingway died, the meetings moved to the Bradley Tavern, located between the Old Stone Church and the present-day Hagaman Library. 

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During this time, fast-growing Fair Haven, a village in the town of East Haven, tried to hijack the main government offices to their side of town. The Bradleys, Hemingways and Thompsons of the day were in no mood to let this happen. By 1842, they had a handsome Town Hall built on Main Street between Thompson and Kirkham streets. 

This building had two stories with the lower floor used for town government and the second floor used for school, dance lessons, charitable group meetings and the eventual library. As wooden buildings of the time were wont to do, it burned in 1892. 

Town government then went into temporary quarters until after World War I, when the growing population dictated a permanent solution. In April 1919, the lovely Victorian home belonging to E. Foote Thompson, directly across Main Street from the Old Stone Church, also burned.

After years of bickering, residents finally voted in 1927 to authorize a $135,000 bond to build a town hall, with an auditorium for meetings, on the corner lot. 

The cornerstone was laid Dec. 11, 1927, with a time capsule inside. The hall was dedicated on Aug. 11, 1928. The imposing edifice was built of Vermont marble, Connecticut red brick and granite from Stony Creek. The roof is Vermont slate. 

Housed in the two-story building were the offices of the selectmen (no mayor, yet), the tax collector, assessor, visiting nurses, building inspector and town clerk. The basement housed the 8th Circuit Court, the Probate Court, the Police Department and the Recreation Department. 

Fast forward 83 years and the front exterior is much the same. There has been an addition, of course, and there is no longer an auditorium for community meetings. The Police Department has moved to its own building and the circuit court was lost to reorganization long ago. 

Joe Buonome, Democratic Registrar of Voters for the past 10 years, remembers that they still held dances on the first floor when he was a young man entering the police force 40 years ago. 

“There were no offices when you came in the front door back then. They still had the district court in the basement with Judge Reynolds,” he said. “What has stayed the same is the atmosphere in the building. It’s a friendly place; a homey place.” 

“They still had selectmen, then, not a mayor,” he said. “But no matter who’s been in office, they’ve always been laid back and friendly.” 

The Mayor’s Office is on the first floor, now, at the end of a corridor graced with photos of past selectmen and mayors. Mayor April Capone also runs a welcoming operation where townspeople can drop by to talk. 

“This is a beautiful, historic building, with some limitations,” said Mayor Capone. “A great many of the decorative details are still visible, but it has needed a good deal of maintenance. When I started as mayor, the roof was leaking and the cupola was rotted. Those have been repaired. I was concerned because we certainly want to preserve this building for the future and for its historic value.” 

She also noted that they are working to change the building with the times. New solar panels have been added to the rear of that Vermont slate roof. They will soon be activated to help make the building more energy efficient. A charging station for electric cars is also being installed. 

While that is cutting-edge news today, in 1909, it was the previous Town Hall that was in the news. That was the year Miss Lottie E. Street discovered that not only was East Haven one of only 15 towns in the state without a library, but also that Connecticut was giving out books to libraries if someone would assume responsibility for them. 

Of fearlessly determined Yankee stock, Miss Lottie stepped up to become the first town librarian. By sheer dint of personality, she managed to get a library board of directors and a $25 budget approved by the town fathers; move the library from Town Hall to a former post office on Main Street; and engage the friendship of Isaac Hagaman’s housekeeper, Mrs. Harriet Metcalf. 

That friendship is thought to have led to the bequest to the library by Hagaman, the traditional small-town-boy-makes-good. He and two brothers left East Haven to go to New York City and start a hotel. It was successful and he retired to the family home on what is now the southeast corner of the library grounds. 

When he died, he left his entire estate to the library. After the dust settled, the total was $160,000. The library spent $70,000 to build the original structure and put the rest in trust for buying books. 

Today, the library has an impressive physical plant that includes a ground-floor children’s library, a community meeting room, two gracious rooms off the entrance that were once used just by adults on one side and by children on the other, and a vast array of printed, audio, electronic and historical resources. 

“Over my 10 years at Hagaman, I would say that the biggest difference in the library has been the huge explosion of information technology and the medium by which we retrieve information,” said Cynthia Gwiazda, the Community Services Librarian. “My first instinct when answering a reference question seven or eight years ago would be to use the library’s print resources. Now, I am much more likely to look at reliable sources on the Internet and then back it up with any available print resources.” 

She also notes that for the past five years, the library has been weeding out its print reference collection. Many of the directories, volumes of encyclopedias, and critical literary sources began offering updated content online. 

“With Kindles, Nooks, other e-readers, iPhones and iPads, downloading books to an external device instead of purchasing, or even borrowing, a printed book is becoming more and more commonplace,” Gwiazda said. “I help patrons troubleshoot their devices and I teach them how to download library eMedia onto the device. Even when the library is closed, patrons can check out e-books and audiobooks directly from the library's website. Facebook and other social media sites have changed the way our library markets and communicates with our patrons.”

She also said that information technology has helped the library "do more with less" so that they can expand the accessibility of all their resources. 

“The traditional quiet library where one goes to sit and read or check out a book has blossomed into a community center with all kinds of resources and cultural and literary events where people of all ages can come to be inspired, enriched and enlightened throughout their lifetime,” Gwiazda said.

We have to believe that Miss Lottie would be proud.

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