Friday Flashback #484

Morris Jesup made his fortune selling railroad supplies.

In 1908, he provided land and funds for a building on the corner of State Street (now called the Post Road) and Main Street: the Morris K. Jesup Memorial Library. (The “K” stood for Ketchum, another noted local name.)

Why “Memorial”? He died just 4 months before its dedication,

That ceremony — almost exactly 117 years ago today — elicited excitement, as the postcard below shows:

And why not? The new library was quite handsome. Here’s the front of that postcard, provided by Seth Schachter:

On the right side — across Main Street — is the old Westport Hotel. It was torn down in 1923, and replaced by the YMCA (now Anthropologie).

Here’s another view, from the same era:

The library replaced the building below. The view is toward the Saugatuck River. The structures on the west side of Main Street — to the right of the site of the “proposed $50,000 Library Building” — still stand today. (Check out the trolley tracks and horse watering trough too.)

The Morris K. Jesup Memorial Library became the Westport Public Library. (It has since shed the “Public” part of its name.)

In the 1950s, it expanded into what is now Starbucks.

In 1986, the Library moved across the street, to landfill just beyond Jesup Green.

It’s undergone 2 renovations — one minor, one much more extensive — in the 40 years since.

A plaque honoring the original benefactor hangs in a stairwell of the “new” building. (There once was a plaque on the main floor, too.)

We owe Morris K. Jesup a great debt of thanks.

And huge props too, for that amazing mustache.

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