Middletown Strong: Looking Up with Russell Library

Secrets of Russell Library

October 04, 2022 Cate Tsahalis Season 2 Episode 14
Middletown Strong: Looking Up with Russell Library
Secrets of Russell Library
Show Notes Transcript

Today's episode dives into the Secrets of Russell Library. Kim sits down with staff members, Amy Slowik, Mary Dattilo, and Denise Mackey-Russo to discuss the history of our "Franken-building" and the spooky tours happening throughout the month of October. Our library certainly isn't lacking in intrigue, register for a tour today and see for yourself!

https://russelllibrary.org/secrets/

Book Recommendations

Ghost Stories and Legends by By Thomas D'Agostino and Arlene Nicholson
White Smoke by Tiffany D Jackson
Nightbooks by J.A. White
Well Witched by Frances Hardinge
Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by R.L. Lafevers

This podcast uses music by Ashutosh, under a creative commons license:
Time by ASHUTOSH | https://soundcloud.com/grandakt
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

Kim:

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Kim Spachman and today I'm speaking with the creative team for the Secrets of Russell Library Tours, which will run on Friday evenings. Throughout the month of October, Amy Slowik, Mary Dattilo, and Denise Mackey-Russo have put together a behind the scenes look at the library's best architectural curiosities and strange stories. Middletown's Library opened in 1876 in the former Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity, donated by Francis Russell in memory of her husband, Samuel. It eventually expanded to include the First Federal Saving and Loan Association of Marden in 1972. In 1983, the brownstone and bank buildings were connected into the library that Middletown residents visit today. The tours will be offered on Fridays throughout October, starting at 5:30 PM and 6:30 PM Amy, Mary. Denise, thank you so much for joining me today. It's good to be here. So tell me a little bit about what each of you do at the library and your history with the building. What inspired you to do these tour?

Mary:

Well, Amy, this is your, uh, project. Uh, I received a message from Amy asking if she could conduct a historical tour this October of Russell Library, and it took off from there.

Amy:

Well, we had talked about it previously. We, we had like a, a year before. Usually we only think of it in September, and by that it's, by that time it's too late. But this time, my mystery group, we were reading the Lions of Fifth Avenue for. Oh, oh gosh. Was it July? I think. So the book at that point, and it's very much a book about, uh, what goes on inside of a library. It's about a family who lives in the library, the New York, the famous New York Public Library. So the group was really excited about libraries as buildings. And were asking us all sort of questions. Denise was there too about the library and its history. We were talking about how we used to give tours, but we hadn't recently, and I don't know, they just got me excited about the idea and I was like, Wait, this is end of July. Maybe we can pull it off this year. If we get things going this year, then we'll have the framework in place and then we can hopefully do it every year and have fun in a different way

Kim:

every year. And you've worked at libraries throughout the country, right? How does Russell's library building compare to some of those other libraries? What makes it unique?

Amy:

Well, I guess so I, this is my first time living in New England and most of my time I've spent in the Midwest and the west and a little bit in the south. And the buildings were generally much newer. I've worked in a lot of Carnegie Libraries and San Diego have just built a brand new, beautiful central library right before I moved there. I guess it was seven years ago at this point. Maybe 10. So most of the libraries I've worked in were designed to be libraries and Russell was not. None of the buildings that Russell, uh, currently is housed in, were designed to be libraries. You know, it's an interesting building because you don't usually have three buildings combined into one building the way Russell is, and you have it have three different buildings from three extremely different architectural periods and the building so much defines what we do within it because we are, um, in many ways confined by what we have to work with. When we are doing programming, when we are rearranging computers, the building very much defines what we do in many ways.

Kim:

Absolutely. And you manage a group of how many people

Amy:

This point? I think it's. 15 or 16

Kim:

Because you're the director of Borrowing Discovery, so you also have the added challenge of managing a group of people who are dispersed throughout the library.

Amy:

They are, yes. Half of us are in the basement and half of us are behind the circulation desk.

Kim:

So there are a lot of challenges. Um, and the building definitely adds another layer.

Amy:

Yes. And so while the building can be sort of a constant challenge, you know, Halloween to me is all about kind of celebrating the darker sides of life.

Kim:

Yes.

Amy:

Making fun of, of what we usually fear. So I think that doing a historical tour of the library with the building often being such a challenge in the month of October, celebrating Yes. The quirks and celebrating the history and the stories.

Kim:

Well, and as you point, The Russell Library is actually a combination of three buildings on a very small lot. The Brownstone building on Court Street has had several different purposes over the years. It's been a church, it's housed a school, and it's served as a library. So I just wanted to ask all of you, um, Mary, maybe I'll start with you. Mary is our Assistant Director of Public Services and also knows our building very well. Is there a particular version of the building, the brownstone building specifically, that struck a chord with you?

Mary:

My favorite, and I've only seen it in pictures, is the original church that Greek revival church that, and I've wished, wished, wish they had retained that. I loved that. I guess it was trendy to Uh, the gothic period was more, more in style at the time that the library was, um, it was turned into a library, that church. So, but I can't say I'm overly fond of the Gothic style, though. It's going to make for a great tour.

Kim:

Yes. And that's an interesting point. I think a lot of, um, library. Don't realize that, um, the, the brownstone building as it exists today is very church-like, but that is not what the, uh, original building looked like at all. Um, I, know I've talked to Denise. Denise is also here. Um, she is one of our adult services librarians and expert in many things, Russell Library. And I wanted to ask you the same thing. Is there a particular vintage of that brownstone building that has stayed with you?

Denise:

Well, as Amy had mentioned, the library is made up of several buildings. I call it a bit of a patchwork quilt. In other words, it's a structure made of multiple buildings that have been sewn together, so to speak. And each part of our library is unique and serves a specific purpose at this point, but it's the oldest part of the library that really strikes a cord with me. The building is made of brownstone, which was quarried across the river in Portland, and it's exterior currently looks like a church. As Mary mentioned, before the building became a library, it looked like a Greek temple with columns across the front, two round. Two square, which is interesting, and it had a very sharp pointed gable into it, and it was rather plain. Um, however, when Francis Russell purchased the building to convert it into a library, she renovated it and she renovated it to a reflect the gothic revival style, which of course includes the gothic arches that we can see above the windows. She had stained glass added, which was not part of the original church, a tower and other gothic ornaments or treatments. So it is curious that it now resembles a church more than it did when it was a church. So it, it is the oldest portion of the complete building that really interests me.

Kim:

I actually didn't know a lot of that, so that's really interesting. One of the great things about this project is I think it's given us a chance to learn and share about the library buildings and look at it in a way that we really haven't before. And so during this process, what have you learned about the library that surprised you? Is there a space or object that you look at differently now?

Amy:

The radiator. The radiator.

Kim:

and that's the radiator in the reading room.

Amy:

There's a circular, You wouldn't, I would not have known it was a radiator. There's a circular, I would've thought it was a table, like an end table, something like that. That apparently was actually a radiator that we, that Denise has shown me and photos from the 1870s that was still in the, that room at that time. Mm-hmm. And it blew my mind that they had radiators back then. I thought they were still doing, you know, fireplaces. So just the concept. They were using radiators then, and we're still using radiators in many buildings now, especially in New England. Um, that, that piece has, has stood the test of time. I don't think it's a radiator anymore at this point. It's a table,

Kim:

Yes. With a computer on top of it. So yes, it's definitely not generating heat anymore.

Amy:

No the computer might be, but

Kim:

yes. Um, how about you, mary?

Mary:

Uh, what surprised me is I didn't realize those stain glass windows weren't part of the original church. When I learned that fact, I was like, You're kidding. Cause I, I thought they just, you know? Yes. And I'm, I'm very fond of the stain glass windows. I, I like them a lot. Um, the most of them face south and when the sun comes in, um, they're just beautiful. They, they cast their light all over the rooms. But that, that was my favorite fun fact was, oh my gosh, they're not original.

Kim:

Yes. And I've had worked at the library for several years before I even thought about it because I remember looking up at the window and saying, Oh, Que Sara Sara, that's what is on the stained glass windows. And I'm like, That's not Latin. What kind of church does Que Sara Sara? And so then I asked Denise and she's like, Oh no, Kim, those aren't part of the church. They were, you know, part of the, um, the redesign to make it a library. And I was like, Oh, alright.

Mary:

I just assumed when they told me it was when I came to work here and they said, Oh, it was an old church. And I'm like, Okay. Church stain glass windows. Didn't think anything of it.

Amy:

Yeah, I think stain glass windows were definitely a, a part of the gothic revival. Yes. Not an expert on, on neoclassical churches. But I don't remember seeing that many stained glass windows in, you know, classical churches.

Kim:

So Mary, you've had a lot of experience putting together tours and historically significant locations. What do you consider when you put together an event like this one?

Mary:

Oh boy, you got about an hour There's so much you have to consider. Um, you have to consider. Um, you can't talk about everything. You have to pick and choose what your tour is going to talk about. You. You can't just get into every nook and cranny. You'd be there for hours. Um, you have to plot out the route. Make sure you don't bump into other tours. Make sure they can't hear you from where you are. You have to consider the size of your tour group. The larger the group, the longer the tour takes just to physically move people from one spot to another. And then the staging. The staging is a big deal because it requires timing. It requires people to remember their lines if they're giving the tour. It requires your, for every person you see up front, like your tour guide, there are probably two or three people backstage, behind the scenes, for instance, who are helping the tour run it. It's pretty complex. It's not just somebody saying, Come on, let me tell you about the library, and you follow them through. There's a lot more to it than that.

Kim:

Yeah. I've been impressed with the way you've, uh, managed the choreography of the tours. It was not something I would've thought about at all. And so yeah, you don't want tour groups bumping into each other or somebody giving away a secret at the wrong time,

Mary:

or I guess we'll have to be careful what we say in this podcast then.

Kim:

Speaking of the tour itself, is there an anecdote or a piece of information that didn't fit into the tour that you wish you could have included? Um, what would that be?

Amy:

Well, I wanted to take us outside to look at the exterior views of the Bell Tower and the porches. We have two porches that I can think of offhand and both have these cool monograms of Samuel Russell, and we assume Francis Russell, but we're not 100% sure about that because they've been damaged. For me, that's one of the coolest parts of the old building is just the exterior. It was a bummer, but we couldn't include that this time. Maybe in the future.

Mary:

Well, that's the nice thing about doing these tours. If we do them every year, um, each tour will be different, so next year. But when you go outside, when you do a tour outside, you have to think about what are we going to do if it rains. So we actually, our tour this year, it does include one outdoor space, our courtyard, but we do have alternative plans for if it rains and we cannot go out in the courtyard. And then just the logistics of getting people in and out of the building and walking. Very uneven ground in the dark. So it just, it was, we're not up to that this year.

Amy:

You talked me out if it Mary, Sorry that Mary's the voice of reason.

Mary:

Thank goodness. Well, I've done this a lot,

Kim:

The voice of experience and we're very lucky to have it. How about you, Denise? Is there, is there something that isn't going to make the tour that you would've liked to have included?

Denise:

Well, there's a little tidbit of information. It's not a location. Per se. But you know, although the tour includes lots of secrets and curiosities and oddities about the library, there's one interesting thing that is not included, and that is that the Russell Library once held a War Relic collection, which I find very interesting. Most people do not know that the Russell Library had two piles of cannon balls and a cannon on the lawn outside the library through the turn of the century. Oh my God, In case of a seige. And in addition to those, um, items on the front lawn there, the library had photographs of men from Middletown who served in the Civil War, a Spanish Mauser rifle, Prussian needle gun, and revolver, a one pound shell used at the bombardment of Carnet. I may have mispronounced that location. Relics from Cuba and Puerto Rico and keys and handcuffs from a penitentiary at anti tetum. Wow. Well, we no longer have those objects, but it's interesting to note that at one point the library did have, Wow. A collection of war memorabilia. Interesting.

Amy:

Well, the original, the original charter for the library, at least the quote I've seen is that it was designed to be a library and a public space, and also an exhibit space for art and other relics. and in the 1870s when it was dedicated to being a library, that was the height of reconstruction. So everyone was recovering from the Civil War and, And I'm sure war was on a lot of people's minds still. Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna ask, do we know where they went?

Mary:

I was wondering that too.

Denise:

I believe the photographs are housed at the historical society where the rest of the armaments went. I do not know.

Amy:

So if any Middletown residents are listening, you happen to have these things in their basement, please let us know.

Denise:

they may very well be at the historical society.

Kim:

So, um, Mary, was there something that hasn't made the final cut of the tour that you...

Mary:

I'm afraid I was the one who kept saying, We can't do everything So, um, I was, I was the bad guy who would cut things out.

Kim:

Was there a painful cut for you? Something you really thought, Oh, yeah. I, I could see this being in here,

Mary:

but I was pretty cold hearted, um, about it, but that's, that's just the, the showman side of me about how to put the show together. But

Amy:

Mary, you're really interested in doing. Historical reenactment.

Mary:

Oh, yes. I have been doing historical reenactments in Cheshire for many years in the Hillside Cemetery, and my ultimate vision of this is to have historical personages doing as you stop in each portion of the library. That would be wonderful. But no where we couldn't do that just starting in. We'd have to start in January. To make that happen. Um, that's a lot of work to, You need actors, you need a director, you need a script, um, yeah, and costumes. It's quite a show, but, um, it would be a wonderful thing, but not this year.

Kim:

So, Denise, as I said before, you've worked with a lot of Russell Library documents and ephemera. What has been your favorite, one of your favorite library discoveries?

Denise:

My favorite library discovery was a collection of World War I posters about nine years ago. I found a wooden box, which I nicknamed the casket. It was about four feet long, about a foot high and a foot deep, and it was. In the basement nailed shut. So at one point my curiosity just got the best of me and I had to find out what was in the in the box. So I felt like Lord Carnarvon who discovered. Two 10 commons tomb. We opened the box and we found a treasure trove of over a hundred World War I posters that were beautiful. They were created by the country's leading artists and rolled up for a hundred years, and many of the posters still had coal dust on them from the turn of the century. The posters were basically designed to rally public opinion for the war, and posters were put up around the library and probably within the community. They really provide a glimpse into the activities and the events that were going on during that period of 1917 to 1919, and some of the posters, a few of the posters actually reflect some of the activities that went on in Middlesex County. Examples of some of the activities depicted in the posters was war bond campaigning, food conservation, the work of the Red Cross and recruiting soldiers. So it was really quite a find and really reflects what was not only going on around the the United States, but also locally in Middlesex County. And it really reflects what the library did as part of the war effort. In addition to supplying books, which I know the library did during World War I, but also they participated in getting the word out by posting the posters.

Amy:

So they supplied books to the soldiers. They did for the soldiers to read.

Denise:

They had collections.

Kim:

Yeah, I think they did it. I mean, I don't know if our library did it, but it was also popular during World War ii. There were certain titles that that went over to the soldiers overseas.

Denise:

I have a couple of other favorites if we have time to Yes. Um, absolutely. A couple of other favorites include a broadside or an advertisement that hangs in the local history room and it advertises lectures, readings and concerts that were scheduled to take place in the Russell Library Hall. Sometime between 1876 and 1909. I find it interesting that the library entertainments, as they were called during the library's first 25 years, are not so different from the programs that the library continues to offer today. One interesting note is that on the list of entertainers is Julia Ward Howe who was an abolitionist, a social activist, a poet, and she was also the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, and Julia was scheduled to give a lecture at the library, and we still have the actual broadside, small broadside or advertisement, and it hangs in the Russell Library's Middletown room, the local history and genealogy collection.

Kim:

I never noticed that. Wow. That's amazing. And it's interesting that you mention the programs that the library was offering in the 19th century, uh, because certain things stay the same, but certain things change and library services have changed a lot over the years. So how has the rest of the library adapted to meet some of those needs? And what kind of building or buildings could you see serving as a 21st century library for Middletown? Wow. Let's focus on the future. So this building has given a lot,

Mary:

Well as as Amy noted in the beginning, this so building that was never intended to be a library that wasn't its original purpose and libraries have changed over the century or, or more that it's been here.

Amy:

Well, I'll say technology, that's the easy answer for me. Yeah, well definitely, you know, technology. Become so ingrained in our society and I don't see that changing the future. I, I see it becoming even more ingrained in society. Yes. Becoming more of a tool that we just take for granted. And the library will always need to help supply that technology to people who don't have the means or the knowledge to procure it for themselves at home.

Mary:

Absolutely, and it also has to be seamless. One of the things that we've learned as people adapt to new technologies and to take the friction out of the experience and make it easy for people to use these technologies, make it easy for them to come to the library, make it easy for them to park. For instance, our number one complaint. It's hard to park here, so to, to remove the friction from the library experience regardless of where the building ends up or what it ends up looking like. We're so much more than our building. We're a service to this community, and that service needs to be future ready.

Amy:

But at the same time, I, I've always seen a public library's role as really sort of bipolar. On the one hand, we're very much the mediator between people and technology and new things that are emerging. But on the other hand, I, I think we do have a, a vital role of preserving books. For example, providing quiet spaces where people can read and study. And one of the cool things I think about libraries is that those two purposes today at least, they can be very divergent. Computer labs are very busy. Our children's wings are very busy. But we also have this wonderful reading room, which is really our largest space that is still very much old fashioned. And you could take that space and it's really sort of timeless. And to me that's kind of the cool part that we can do both at the same time if we have enough facilities and money and I think we're doing a pretty good job now.

Kim:

Yeah, we have a fantastic technology team who has done a great job of bringing each building into the 21st century. And it's interesting because you know, a lot of libraries, particularly Carnegie libraries, face this problem because they were designed and built in a time where you didn't need a lot of power outlets. You didn't have to worry about whether wireless service could be disseminated evenly throughout the building and the infrastructure itself to provide broadband wasn't even in anybody's head when a lot of these older buildings were constructed and they're beautiful and they've lasted for a long time, which of course makes it even harder to get wiring into the walls without causing damage. So, um, but I like that point. It is about preserving history as well as thinking towards the future. So just taking a little bit of a pivot, speaking of tradition, but also looking to the future, who is your favorite librarian in literature or popular culture? My husband works at the Good Speed Opera House and they did a version of the Music Man a couple of years ago. So I got to hear Mary and the librarian in song during the entire process. And so now I have a special place in my heart for Marion.

Amy:

You stole mine, well. No, she's not my favorite librarian cuz she's really pretty stereotypical librarian. Favorite song about a librarian. Yeah. And probably the only song about a librarian, but it is a beautiful song.

Kim:

Yes. Yes. And owed to librarians, and you know, we deserve it.

Amy:

And that, that kinda gets to my beef with popular culture. When I first became a librarian, my husband's a film scholar, so we were watching tons of movies. We didn't have kids yet, and all the librarians depicted in the films were just uptight and angry. And they were like the enemy.

Mary:

Yes, they were gatekeepers. Right. And that is the stereotype of librarians and that's, it's, that's why it's kind of hard. I kind of drew a blank when you asked that, because it's hard to find a librarian in literature or the movies or films that is not stereotype.

Kim:

Mm-hmm.

Denise:

I have a favorite librarian from sort of current literature, and her name is Cussy May Carter. She is a pack horse librarian and the main character of the book, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Richardson. Okay. Yeah. It's a work of fiction that highlights the work of a pack horse librarian who delivered books by horse or mule to the rural people of Kentucky during the WPA or the New Deal. Um, before I read the book, I. Absolutely nothing about Pack Horse Library service, and I think it's an interesting read about a service that is largely unknown, but boy, Cussy May Carter was a real hero to me as a librarian.

Amy:

I guessing Cussy meant something different at that point, that it didn't have its current connotation of cussing otherwise. Cussy, that's quite a nickname.

Mary:

You know who was a librarian? Hmm. Bat Girl.

Kim:

That's right.

Mary:

Bat Girl was a Barbara Gordon in the Batman series

Kim:

and she was fabulous. She had a motorcycle

Mary:

and yeah, she was cool. There was a poster and I, I don't think I have it anymore, that showed Barbara Gordon by day, and then the other half of the poster was Bat Girl and all this and that, and they said, you know, librarians rising to the challenge. Yes. That was so, yes. Okay. I guess I do have one

Kim:

Yes. And she's, she's a good one too. Yeah. You wouldn't want to owe her fines? Oh no.

Mary:

Well, we are now fine free, so that doesn't That's right. Our fine. Free. I'm proud to say

Kim:

True. True. And since I have you all together, I have to take the opportunity to ask, um, a group of librarians for recommendations. So, Is there a book, a movie, or a TV show, maybe a podcast that you'd like people to know about?

Amy:

Kim? I always get my book recommendation from you,

Kim:

Well, thank you.

Mary:

That's tough. Cuz I'm gonna admit I tend not to read more modern literature. I love books from like a 100 years ago. Okay. I love books from the 1920s and thirties. I'm a big fan of Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Uh, Mysteries from that period. I love reading Stout, uh, though one of my favorite series of all time. I'll give a plug to Mary Stewart and her Merlin Trilogy. I recommend that all the time to people. The Crystal Cave, the Hollow Hills, and the Last Enchantment, three of the best written books. They are fabulous, fabulous take on the legend of Arthur and and Merlin, and so I always recommend those my, my go-to books. Okay.

Kim:

And Denise, do you have anything you'd like to recommend?

Denise:

Well, I guess a book that I would recommend is called The Cartographers by Pang Shepherd. It's an interesting story about a young gal who was a cartographer or a map librarian and who also worked for and was fired by the New York Public Library. And when Nell's estranged father, who was the head of the New York Public Library's Map collection, is found dead with a seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk. Nell, soon discovers a map is extremely valuable and that a mysterious collector will stop at nothing to destroy it, and anyone who gets in the way. A thriller. It's a murder mystery, and it also is about another dimension found through maps. And one aspect of the book that I really liked is they reference the Sanborn fire insurance maps when they are trying to locate. Perhaps secret rooms within the New York Public Library and the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps are one of my favorite maps, and we have them for Middletown and they're fun to look at, so that I would recommend that for many different reasons.

Kim:

Absolutely. I love that.

Denise:

And I would like to recommend a podcast called Side Door. It is hosted by the Smithsonian, 155 million Treasures Fill the Smithsonian's Vaults, but where Public View Ends side door begins with the help of biologists, artists, historians, archeologists, zookeepers, and astrophysicists. The Host sneaks listeners through the Smithsonian side door to search for stories that cannot be found anywhere else. And I really enjoy listening to some of the podcasts. There's a wide range of topics. Topics range from the history of lawns and mowing in the United States to the life of Pandas. So they really dig into their vaults and they dig into the experts that are associated with the Smithsonian to help tell the podcast stories.

Kim:

That's a wonderful recommendation. I'm gonna put that on my podcast list today. Thank you. And I think that's a great note to end our discussion on. The Secrets of Russell Library Tours, again running on Friday evenings throughout the month of October. Please contact the library to reserve a space. Amy Slowik, Mary Dattilo, and Denise Mackey-Russo. Thank you so much for talking with me and sharing some of the secrets that you've uncovered working at the library.

Mary:

Thanks. It was fun.

Denise:

Thank you.