I had the honor of meeting with Bruce Tuthill of the firm Tuthill & Wells Architects yesterday afternoon. It is such a pleasure to meet with one of the great design architects of an era. We spent hours talking about trends in architectural design and how young architects don’t even know how to hand draw a rendering of a building. All they know is AutoCAD drawings. Nuance is lacking in those designs.
He talked of hand delivering to Towns and Libraries their historical hard copy drawings of their structures. His life time of work belong delivered to the Town Managers and Librarians for their archives; the last hard copy drawing which are the history of these structures from master builder times to the current day. I wonder if these drawings should reside in the State Archive so they survive……….
Bruce and his partner have done some of the great libraries in Connecticut and before that their original founding partner in the firm who died some years back. He explained how the original towns all had a “Green” and around this Green would be the Town Hall, the Town Church (typically Congregational) and almost uniquely Connecticut………the Library. Think of the tall white bell tower steeples that served as a beacon to bring people to the town. (No Google maps back then.) Think of the Bell Tower calling you to worship on the Sabbath.
We spent time looking at his designs for restoring, refurbishing, rebuilding and adding new uses to these historical libraries. Such a simple time where the Town Library was the cultural center, the center of learning and gathering place. Think how significant it was to the community that the Town Hall where they governed themselves, the church in which they worshipped and the library where they educated and improved themselves. The Town Hall Vault that ensured the survival of their precious history and heritage.
As we looked at his design drawings and photos of these three hundred, two hundred year old structures. We talked about the Deed Books, Birth and Death records and even the records from the local hospital or Asylum which chronicled the path of disease through these communities where every family lost members to small pox, tuberculosis and so on. The Grant Books that modeled after the “Domesday Book" from England where the inventory or census of every inhabitant was listed. Maybe the CRM test should require a visit to these towns to see how records were revered. To immerse yourself in the gravitas of your career.
Bruce talked of a future retirement; as Libraries are not a fixture today. The trend is away from books to Internet desks, wireless networks and meeting rooms. People come in and download a book to their tablet, when they are done reading it, they delete it. The great libraries fade away. The vendors who claim they can create an archival disk or tape that can last extended lifetimes have no scientific testing to verify integrity and longevity and the phrase “Permanent records" is not in their lexicon.
Architects like Bruce take Town Halls and Libraries and return them to their earlier splendor. We talked of a project in Lyme Connecticut where the Town Hall will have its old tin pressed ceiling exposed to view and restored, where a bell in the tower which was last rung on 9-11 resides. These old bells like in First Parish Church United in Westford date back to the time before Independence. Some of the bells are cast by the same artists that created the Liberty Bell. The Lyme Library just celebrated its 100 year old anniversary. The dedication of the Town Selectman, and Town Clerks to preserve records for 350 years………… Do yourself a favor and visit www.billmemorial.org and http://www.ledyard.lioninc.org and while in the area visit Old Lyme’s art museum which store the art from America’s first Impressionist Art Colony. This history and the beauty sweep over you and you will never be the same. Take your kids and show them what your career is really about. That time and history will reflect your heroic task.
This summer take a few days off and visit the historic Towns of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Stand on the Green and just think……
Hold the town history in your hands. Hopefully hear the Bells of Connecticut call you to worship in a church that dates back into the 1700’s and think they worshipped here before we were a nation. Visit Mystic, CT and see the Whaling Museum and then walk up the hill to the most amazing Library on the hill. The Groton Library, the Bill libraries built by two brothers in two towns, each wealthy brother competing to see who could create the grandest Town Library.
Visit the web site of Tuthill and Wells and see the great Town Halls and Libraries and records management comes alive. Will future generations see the value of these documents and books. Visit the Library in Westford, MA and stand on their front step and view the Church Steeple across the Green and the bell tower as you look across canons used to defend the nation, to create the nation and in each community a records manager and archivist took their charge seriously. Makes you proud………
As I left to drive home to Pennsylvania, Bruce and his wife Helen gave me two loaves of old fashioned Irish Soda Bread to remind me of our shared Irish heritage and how the Irish played a role in Connecticut. He mentioned the Hartford Fire Company, one of the first great fire fighting groups was known for its large Irish contingent. What a country we live in!! And maybe we would not know that history except for records managers and archivists in our American past who continually looked for new and better ways to protect the documents and history in their care.
Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
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