A familiar place in the heart of Housatonic, Ramsdell Library served as the genesis for The Last Quiet Place project.
I hoped for two things before arriving to shoot Ramsdell:
- A positive kickoff. A validation of sorts that this project will not only be doable but that it’ll be received well by the community
- Fresh eyes. I had been in Ramsdell a hundred times, but when I showed up with camera in-hand, I didn’t want to see it as the place I once colored with my son or sat and read the newspaper that Sunday afternoon. I needed to arrive with the qualia that first made me a photographer – an eye for that which is overlooked, an invocation for wonder, a vantage point of appreciation for the history, nostalgia, architecture, community, and details that only the magic of this place can offer.
The library’s atmosphere is relaxed and lived-in while its grand, dark wood accents, creaky floors, and cast-iron radiators allow its history to hang in there air. It’s palpable.
Jamie Nicholson, Branch Manager and Assistant Director of Programming & Outreach, told me the Ramsdell architects reused the exact design for other New England libraries (such as Somerville Public Library) giving it many “twins” in the region. Ramsdell Library was built in 1908 by Theo Ramsdell, owner of Monument Mills (the network of big mill buildings in Housatonic), and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.
Struck by the grandness of the building, I found myself shooting architectural details like the mosaic tesserae tile floor and the curved staircase. I captured items that highlight the passing of time like a phone jack on the wall or the early 1900’s door knobs.
Moments of banal beauty are my favorite to photograph, to search for vignettes that are so overwhelmingly simple, they’re poetic. Ramsdell had this in spades. As I captured a stack of peaceful newspapers, some evidently read and returned, others just fondled with, I had the impression that these simple vignettes may be one of the most gratifying aspects of photographing the next twenty-nine libraries.
A big thank you to Jamie and the Great Barrington Libraries team for their help, kindness, and support!
I left Ramsdell thinking… “I hope Mason (Ramsdell’s sister library in GB) and the rest of the libraries are this fulfilling to photograph.”