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Cos Cob Library Edit

Summary

Identifier
A.1995.018

Dates

  • 1971-1995 (Creation)

Extents

  • 2 Linear Feet (Whole)
    Two legal sized document boxes, and two letter sized document boxes.

Subjects

Notes

  • Biographical / Historical

    The first Cos Cob library branch was dedicated on September 17, 1930 in conjunction with the opening of the new addition to the Cos Cob school. The library itself had a few homes, although the one in which it was installed in 1992 was in the Mill Pond shopping center. By 1992 the Cos Cob branch had spent 60 years renting space for the library, and was being faced with intense budget cuts from the town. Cutting the Cos Cob branch seemed logical to the Board of Trustees as it was looking at trying to cut a little over $119,000 from its budget. There was widespread outcry from the Cos Cob community, and what followed was a three year battle to find a new permanent home for the Cos Cob branch that included some time in an old Food Mart space. There were many spaces evaluated and debated by both the Friends of the Cos Cob Library, the Greenwich Library Board of Trustees, and the RTM, including the old pump house that is now the River House Adult Day Center. By June of 1995 the Cos Cob branch had a permanent home in a new space right by the Cos Cob school on Suburban Avenue.

  • Scope and Contents

    These materials document some of the history of the Cos Cob branch of the Greenwich Library. It includes a brief overview of the history of the branch, but primarily is composed of materials relating to the threatened closure of the Cos Cob branch of the library in 1992 due to budget cuts. Series one is a collection of four loose-leaf scrapbooks covering in detail both the reactions by the public and the internal goings on at the Cos Cob branch of the Greenwich Library from prior to the budget cuts in 1989 through to 1994 with the continued evaluations of potentially suitable relocation sites although the library wouldn't officially relocate to a permanent home until 1995. Series two is comprised of materials related to the arguments surrounding the continuing existence of the Cos Cob branch that was not included in the loose-leaf scrapbooks. It includes internal correspondence, meeting minutes of both the Friends of the Cos Cob Library and the Board of Trustees of the Greenwich Library, annual reports of the Greenwich Library, Greenwich Library Committee materials, Cassette Tapes of the trustees meeting at which the Cos Cob branch was picked for closing, information on the Clementine Lockwood Peterson bequest of $25 Million, and an original watercolor of "Old Cos Cob Post Office" by John Cullen Murphy. Series 3 consists of photographs, negatives, and contact sheets of the old Mill Pond space being moved, the Food Mart space as set up in 1992, the pump station, and other area libraries to be used as inspiration.

  • Arrangement

    This collection has been broadly arranged into three series. Series 1: Cos Cob Library History Scrapbooks. These four scrapbooks were donated loose-leaf and separated into appropriate files with an index. Series 2: Cos Cob Library History Related Materials. This collection of materials was donated simultaneously with the scrapbooks and includes clippings, meeting minutes, and some internal correspondence. Series 3: Photographs and Negatives.

  • Conditions Governing Access

    There are no conditions governing access to this material.

  • Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Cos Cob Library Collection, Greenwich Historical Society.

  • General

    Associated accession numbers: A.1993.074, A.1995.018, A.1997.009

Components