The Architecture of The Cary Memorial Library in Lexington, MA

Join New England Design & Construction CEO David Muniz Supple for an architectural overview of the Cary Memorial Library in Lexington, Massachusetts.

“I’m standing in front of the statue of Captain John Parker. He was the leader of the first battle of the Revolutionary War against the British right at this premises, at this battle green in Lexington. And he not only inspired his troops, but he also inadvertently inspired the design of a library.”

“The architect, his name was Willard D. Brown. His choice of the Arts and Crafts style for the library really started here, and what was just built, you know, a few years before he started designing that.

All right, so I’m standing in front of the Cary Memorial Library. This was designed and finished in 1906. The Arts and Crafts movement was in full bloom at this point and was really inspired by nature, by simplicity. It was a turn away from the industrial (inclination) of production-based products from the Victorian era, and an emphasis on handcrafted items. One facet of the Arts and Crafts movement was material selection, and these are all natural materials. You have rock, wood, clay, and stucco, and that’s really what the exterior is composed of.

This library is really kitty-cornered on a corner, and so the entry actually pushes you out into the Battle Green, right into kind of an intersection of streets here. Every time I drive by this building, I love it. I look at it and I admire it. And one thing I think that was done really well is this had actually several additions — you would never know it driving by. And the additions are actually — this is a one story right here — the additions are actually two stories, but they were done really well to allow the original structure to maintain its hierarchy and focus, and they really supplement it well. This is a huge library. It’s like this was the original, but there have been several additions which were bigger than the original.

So this fixture is definitely of the Arts and Crafts prairie style vernacular. Another feature is this gable entry — it’s called a rake board, or you might call that a barge board. You have these huge brackets underneath here. You almost see the human touch to it. It’s part of that whole story and narrative of the Arts and Crafts style. The condition of the building is incredible, and you have the field stone here. If you look at all the granite sills, they’re all pitched away. You can tell that this was designed to last.

These are actually still original wood windows. I don’t know if they’re original, but they’re definitely restored or made to be original. If you notice, there’s no panes, which was kind of a new feature of the Arts and Crafts movement. Another neat feature is the rafter tails act as the brackets — they actually hold the copper gutter in place. It really does continue kind of the classical tradition of an entablature, but in an Arts and Crafts style. And if you look on the roof itself, there’s snow rails. Sometimes there’s just divots every so often, sometimes there’s rails, and these have the rails. When there’s multiple rails, it’s called a fence snow rail or snow guard, and that’s just to keep snow — when there’s a buildup of snow, the snow holds on to that so you don’t have it falling on people when they’re walking down the street.

All right, this is Dave Supple signing off, hitting you up with some knowledge on some architecture. I hope you appreciate it and learn something. We’ll come back and give you some more architectural history in Lexington and other places.”

David Muniz Supple – CEO / Founder New England Design & Construction

About New England Design & Construction:

New England Design & Construction is a leading luxury architectural design build firm now based at 342 Bedford Street in Lexington, MA! We have been serving Boston and MetroWest for 21 years now and expanded here to Lexington from Mission Hill last year to this historic property–the iconic Deacon Nathan Reed homestead.

We specialize in high-end and luxury architectural design build services–beginning with an initial client concept and moving through interior design, full architectural planning, and an artisan build followed by a five-year warranty on our work.

NEDC was founded by David Muniz Supple in 2005 following his graduation from Tufts Architectural. David worked for a period at an architectural design studio and then immersed himself in the trades in Boston to teach himself to actually build. NEDC was founded in 2005 in the vision of the Architect as Master Builder – fully responsible for every aspect of a project from initial sketch through final nail.