Survey Data
Reg No
22810025
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Cultural, Historical, Social
Original Use
Library/archive
In Use As
Library/archive
Date
1910 - 1915
Coordinates
210433, 99380
Date Recorded
24/09/2003
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Terraced single-bay two-storey gable-fronted Carnegie Free Library, opened 1911, with single-bay single-storey jettied box oriel window to first floor. Refenestrated, post-2000. Pitched (gable-fronted) slate roof with clay ridge tiles, rendered chimney stack, timber bargeboards, and cast-iron rainwater goods on timber eaves. Red brick English bond wall to ground floor with inscribed cut-limestone band to first floor, painted rendered walls to first floor having painted timber frame-detailing, and painted roughcast panel to gable having bas-relief shamrock detailing. Square-headed window openings with cut-limestone sills, and block-and-start surrounds to ground floor, and on timber frame-detailed apron to box oriel window. Replacement timber casement windows, post-2000. Square-headed door opening with cut-limestone surround (part block-and-start), and timber panelled double doors with leaded overlight. Set back from line of road with replacement unpainted cement rendered plinth wall, post-2000, to forecourt having wrought iron railings over, and wrought iron gate.
Appraisal
A picturesque small-scale library designed by George P. Sheridan (d. 1950) and built on a site donated by Sir John Keane (n. d.). The library is distinguished in the townscape of Cappoquin on account of its stylistic detailing, the combination of a variety of materials, and the position set back from the established line on Main Street. Although inappropriate replacement fittings had been installed to the openings in the late twentieth century, sympathetic replacement articles have subsequently re-established much of the character of the composition. The library is of particular significance for its associations with its patron, Andrew Carnegie (1835 - 1919), and is one of a small group of libraries sponsored by the industrialist in County Waterford (including Ballyduff (22808008/WD-20-08-08), Lismore (22809036/WD-21-09-36), Tallow (22818003/WD-28-18-03), and Waterford City (22501189/WD-5632-21-197)).