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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I have such wonderful memories of the of the library as shown in the first two pictures. I won’t bore everyone with all my memories, but I claim that the books I checked out and read helped me get into college. The research I did there on Spring Break for a college paper earned me a n excellent grade. I could cross the street and get the bus back home in front of Colgan’s Drug store. Those were the wonderful days and memories my 06880 friends.
Wonderful coverage of a very generous man. Many great memories.
Thank you so much for publishing all the enriching history our beloved Westport Library treasure and Morris K. Jesup. He’s fascinating and so is his nephew the Ufologist named after him, as well!
I used to play competitive Scrabble, and one interesting player set his life goal to visit every Starbucks in the world. He noted the uniqueness of this Starbucks having two floors (back in 2001], which makes sense given it was a library!
“ So few stores in the United States have an upstairs, so it’s a shame that customers are not allowed on the second floor of this location. But it is unavoidable. According to a visitor to my site, the length of the staircase exceeds the fire code, and the upstairs is only suitable for elves. Starbucks conducted a market study and determined that Westport does not have a large enough population of elves to warrant obtaining the proper permits. Most of Connecticut’s elf population is located in the northwest, which as yet lacks a Starbucks.”
MY LIBRARY (pic 5). Remember how bare the children’s section (2nd floor) was after the opening. They placed plastic ship & vehicle models along the top of the shelves by the west windows to “fill in” the space! Struggling in 5th grade math, I hit the shelves for a primer: Isaac Asimov’s “Realm of Numbers” [Houghton 1959] which helped.
And there was a little gallery towards the front just pass the stairs where I first became acquainted with the Artists of Westport: Whitney Darrow’s work from Esquire, IIRC though I associate a Dedini with that show, too.
Yes, Miss Street, I should have taken your advice. You were an understanding Tamarac neighbor.