Connecticut's Library Heritage
The Perrot Memorial Library is located in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, a Long Island Sound seaside community which comprises the eastern portion of the Town of Greenwich. The Perrot Library operates independently as a private 501(c)(3) institution and is closely associated with the larger, research-intensive Greenwich Library. The land and building are owned by the Perrot Memorial Library Association; operating expenses are covered by the budget of the Town of Greenwich. The library, named for John Perrot, Old Greenwich's first schoolmaster, was founded in 1904 by his descendents. It moved from place to place until 1930. Dan Everett Waid, past president of the American Institute of Architects, donated the present site along with design plans for the Jeffersonian style main building. The library is particularly dedicated to the reading needs and interests of preschool and school age young people, of which there is a sizeable number in the Old Greenwich/Riverside/North Mianus area.
Financial support from residents of the community has sustained the library throughout its history. Notable among early donors were Mrs. Enos Lockwood, who established the first trust fund in 1910; Miss Annie May Hegeman, who helped bring Waid's drawings to life; Mrs. Edwin Binney and her family, of the Binney-Smith (Crayola) Company, who developed the lovely park that adjoins the library; and the family of Stanley Rand, a former president of the Perrot Board.
By the early 1990s the library had accumulated pressing needs for improved handicapped access, better operating conditions for staff, capability for electronic materials access, and more space for programs and the expanding print and non-print collections. A Connecticut State Library Space Needs Study called for a collection of 25,000 volumes more than were then available at Perrot due to space constraints. Clearly, expansion was necessary. But the library's site, beautifully landscaped, included a significant rock outcropping to its rear, one so large as to preclude any hope of solving the library's needs through expansion on the same ground level as the existing building.
Architect Mark Thompson met the challenge by building into and over the rock hill, accessing the addition via a bridge from the main building and through a separate entrance from the sidewalk/parking level. The new addition separates the children's and adult sections of the library and configures the space more appropriately to the needs of library visitors and staff. The design includes environmentally sound elements providing savings in operating costs. The cost of the addition was met through the combination of Connecticut State Library Construction Grants, hundreds of individual gifts, corporate matching donations, and community support activities.