Last week, a researcher working in Special Collections at the
University of Vermont asked for help identifying the architect who designed the beautiful stone library at Vermont Academy in Saxton’s River, Vermont. We turned to Chronicling America, hoping that a Vermont newspaper had announced the proposed project or
celebrated its completion.

Using the advanced search feature, we limited the search to
Vermont newspapers. We knew the library was completed in 1892, so we limited the search dates to 1891-1892. For search terms, we used “library” and “Vermont Academy” (as a phrase).

Even with the narrow date range, our search returned 55 results. We sorted the results by date, and luckily, the second result
identified the architect as William P. Wentworth.  The article on the front page of the Feb. 6, 1891 Vermont Phoenix also provided a
detailed and enthusiastic description of the proposed building.

An illustration shows “a low, slate-roofed building of the
Romanesque order as interpreted by the late H. H. Richardson, America’s greatest architect.” The article took note of the field stone walls that extend up to a roof with a long and graceful curve and concluded that the building was “one of the most original, unique and beautiful that the architect has ever brought out.”

Wentworth, a Boston architect who was a native of Bellows Falls, Vermont, specialized in institutional and church architecture. As a young man, he was the supervising architect for Richard Upjohn’s Gothic Revival Immanuel Church in Bellows Falls. He also was
responsible for Mary Fletcher Hospital in Burlington, Vermont.

-Prudence Doherty, UVM Special Collections