Yale’s Lewis Walpole Library recently celebrated the completion of a major renovation project. Located in Farmington, Connecticut, the Library is the major research center for 18th-century studies and the prime source for the study of politician, writer, and architectural innovator Horace Walpole and the home he designed, Strawberry Hill.

The newly completed spaces include a reading room, state-the-art collection storage, a classroom, new staff and conservation workspaces, and an exhibition gallery.

Construction began in spring 2006. An addition designed by Centerbrook Architects and Planners LLC was built to resemble a barn, recalling the Connecticut tradition of connected farm buildings while preserving the residential image and scale of the historic neighborhood. The reading room, which shares the first floor of the new space with staff offices, workspaces, and an area for conservation, accommodates up to 10 readers. The building’s design and construction were planned to allow the Library addition to be certified as a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Building by the U.S. Green Building Council. This entailed reducing demolition waste, recycling storm water runoff, installing energy-efficient heating and cooling, and using as many local building materials as possible.

To celebrate the end of the project, as well as Horace Walpole’s 290th birthday, the Library held a lawn party on September 27. Guests came from as far away as England and included Lord Waldegrave of North Hill and his wife, Caroline. The Waldegrave family owned Strawberry Hill for a century after Walpole’s death.

The Library is planning a series of open houses to welcome visitors to the new space and will also be unveiling an exhibit of recent acquisitions.

The Lewis Walpole Library was given to Yale by Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis (Yale College, 1918; Fellow, Yale Corporation, 1938-1964) and Annie Burr Lewis, and is a department of the Yale University Library. For more information, visit www.library.yale.edu/walpole.

Contact: Geoffrey Little

© 2005 Yale University Library
Page Last Updated: 11/24/2009