March 2025.
In a city where Richardsonian Romanesque architecture dominates, the Warder Public Library is certainly an excellent example. Designed by the notable firm Shepley, Rutan, & Coolidge, the successor to H. H. Richardson himself, it was Springfield’s public library for almost 100 years.
The Warder Public Library is located at 137 East High Street, east of downtown Springfield, Ohio. It is bordered by High Street and the Lagonda Club to the north, parking lots and industrial buildings to the south, Spring Street and St. Raphael’s to the east, and Clark State College’s Brinkman Educational Center to the west.
History
Springfield’s public library began in 1841 with the establishment of the Springfield Lyceum, followed by various short-lived library associations. Its first permanent location was on the second floor of Black’s Opera House, which opened in 1872. As the library expanded, it moved to the second floor of the Union Hall Building in 1877.
Historic postcard of the Warder Public Library. (eBay)
The Warder Public Library was a gift to the city of Springfield from its eponymous donor, Benjamin Warder. It was dedicated in memory of his parents Jeremiah and Ann Warder. He was the president of Warder, Bushnell, & Glessner Company, which manufactured farming equipment. Two of the partners commissioned a house by H. H. Richardson--Warder planned a mansion in Washington, D.C., and Glessner’s is a well-known Chicago landmark. After Richardson died in 1886, his successor firm Shepley, Rutan, & Coolidge completed the houses.
Warder was impressed by the firm’s work and they were his first choice for the library’s design. He also invited architect R. H. Robertson, who designed the Bushnell House in the High Street Historic District, to submit plans. Ultimately, Shepley, Rutan, & Coolidge were selected in 1888. Its construction was delayed until May 1889, and the library opened on June 12, 1890.
The library c. 1930s. (Ohio History Connection)
The Warder Public Library’s design was influenced by similar projects. Its L-shaped plan recalls Richardson’s Converse Public Library in Malden, MA. It was one of three libraries that Shepley, Rutan, & Coolidge were working on concurrently, and as such all three share characteristics. The Warder Public Library specifically is built of Amherst sandstone from Cleveland and Worcester brownstone from Massachusetts, while its roof is Akron tile.
Drawings of the similar Converse Library, designed by Richardson himself. (Wikimedia)
The interior arrangement is unique in that its reading room is perpendicular to the stacks, as opposed to the typical on-axis construction that Shepley, Rutan, & Coolidge employed in their other library designs. The interior has standard Richardsonian Romanesque detailing, like stone carvings and rich woodwork, as well as a large fireplace.
The Warder Public Library has had minor changes occur over the years as it expanded. Charles Coolidge of Shepley, Rutan, & Coolidge made a site visit as early as 1903 to consider expanding the stacks. (It is unclear if these changes were ever made.) The first completed modification was a metal-framed second floor, which I believe subdivided the original stacks into two floors. In 1969, local architects Schreiber, Little, & Associates built a mezzanine in the reading room.
Clark County’s public library considered building an addition during the 1970s, but they ultimately decided to design a new building southwest of the Warder Public Library. The new Postmodern Clark County Public Library opened in 1989. Afterwards, the Warder Public Library was renamed to the Warder Literacy Center and is used as an adult literacy center today.
Photos
I had a hard time doing this building justice. The large tree and weird site made it difficult to get pictures that showed the library in its entirety. Additionally, I feel that I missed a lot of details that I would have otherwise captured, since I did not proceed any further than the sidewalk. (I didn’t know that this was a Shepley, Rutan, & Coolidge building until after my visit.) I like this picture from my first visit better:
Note the simple L-shaped plan, which is spiced up by the central tower and front porch. The roof also has a simple gabled design, but the eastern dormer again adds detail.
The porch and entrance:
These features are all typical of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. The triple arch with massive voussoirs, foliate columns beneath, and checkerboard masonry are hallmarks of the style. Although these are all ornamental features, the Springfield Republic noted that the library “depend[s] more upon form and proportion for its beauty, than upon unnecessary or meaningless ornamentation…[w]here ornament is required, it will, under the skilled hand of the carver, appear to have grown out of the structure from necessity.”
I unfortunately seem to have missed many of these ornamental features, but the building apparently has monkey grotesques and a princess carving, which represent curiosity and imagination, respectively. Spring Street’s cornice also has an owl perched upon a screaming man, meaning wisdom’s ousting of ignorance.
A better look at the arches and their decoration:
The dormer has a lot going on:
The polychrome vaults on the windows are only seen here, and the panel beneath the peak is engraved with a six-pointed star. I like the various pinnacles used here, too.
The central octagonal tower:
The shaft is articulated in three parts--the thick base with small, thin windows, the larger arched windows above, and the elaborate top with bundled columns and vaults that dominate the entire wallspace. The top has a peaked roof and a pinnacle.
Here’s a better look at the top and its carved features:
The corbels have faces carved on them in the middle and foliage elsewhere. The columns are simple Corinthian designs, left largely undetailed because of their size and location.
The north and west facade:
Note the large grids of Richardsonian windows here. These begin to defeat the earlier tendency of libraries to be stuffy, dark places, where light only entered from above. Instead, ample natural light is provided for reading room users. Also notice the carving on the course above the windows.
Another look from further away:
I think the current site of this building, much like St. John’s Lutheran, really fails to do it justice. High Street has become a busy road, and Spring Street was replaced by a bridge (probably during urban renewal). It was built as a small public library serving a nearby residential area, and today it is a dinosaur isolated in a part of town that doesn’t match its original program anymore.
Sources:
https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/OH-01-023-0049
https://www.ccplohio.org/library-history/
https://www.westcotthouse.org/gps/downtown/warder-free-library#load
https://www.ebay.com/itm/305696220202
https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p267401coll34/id/4776/
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