Springfield Town Library (Spafford Library)

A bequest for a library from banker Henry Harrison Spafford brought high-style Renaissance Revival design to Springfield's Main Street. The original building had a typical Beaux-Arts scheme, a single principal floor with reading rooms across the front and stacks in a rear wing above an elevated basement. Constructed in brick with terra-cotta trim, slate roof, and iron crestings, it has a finely detailed facade with windows topped by triangular pediments on consoles.

The designers were from Massachusetts, Willard P. Adden of Reading and Russell W. Porter of Boston. The MIT-educated Porter was the grandson of a Spafford trustee. Because he was interested in advanced optics, James Hartness brought Porter back to Springfield in 1919 for a decade of optical research at Jones and Lamson. During this time Porter constructed a telescope at Hartness's house, founded the Springfield Telescope Makers in 1922, and designed both their clubhouse (1924) at the edge of town and the Stellafane Observatory (1930), which contains a reflecting turret telescope; the observatory is a National Historic Landmark. Except for return visits to Stellafane, Porter left Springfield for California in 1929 to build the telescope at Mount Palomar Observatory.

In 1926, the heirs of banker and library trustee Henry Barnard provided funds for a children's wing to the south of the Spafford building. Constructed in 1928, it matched the original in materials and detailing but was distinguished by a discreet setback and a lowered eaves line. In 1938, Barnard's daughter Mary, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, left funds for an addition to the stack wing. A major addition was completed in 1978 to the southeast and the floor of the Barnard wing was lowered to enhance accessibility. Despite these changes, the library's two earliest wings remain a complete and striking composition.