Black Watch Memorial Library

In 1903, F. D. Richars, Secretary of the Ticonderoga Historical Society and Assistant Secretary of the New York State Historical Association, began solicitating funds for the construction of a new library building for the town of Ticonderoga. Richars appealed to philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, whose foundation has been responsible for the donation of $39,172,981 for the construction of public libraries in one-thousand-four-hundred-six communities. Richars asked Carnegie for funds to erect a library in Ticonderoga that would serve as a memorial to the Black Watch, the Scottish Highland Regiment that fought in the French and Indian War battle at Ticonderoga on July 8, 1758. After first rejecting the request, Carnegie offered $5,000 if the town would buy a site and contribute $500 annually towards the library. In June of 1905, Richars requested an additional donation for a historical room and Black Watch memorial. Carnegie granted $2,000 for this purpose. The library’s cornerstone was laid on October 4, 1905, the same day as that of the Ethan Allen Lodge across the street. 

Although many early twentieth century public buildings in Ticonderoga were designed in the Colonial Revival style in response to the community’s renewed interest and pride in the town’s Colonial heritage, several reflect the historic eclecticism of this period. The 1906 Central School has features of the Jacobean Revival style. The Tudor and Jacobean Revival New York State Armory, constructed in 1935, employs such medieval elements as buttresses, a broad steep roof, small paned windows, and a deeply recessed entrance arch, elements which give the building an appropriate fortress-like appearance. 

The library remains an outstanding, intact example of Jacobean Revival style public architecture. It is a prominent local landmark and a community center serving the cultural and educational needs, historically and present, of the community. The building was designed by an Albany architect named Pitcher. It exhibits such features of Jacobean Revival style as the use of brick with stone trim, a steeply pitched, multi-gabled roof with slate shingles, projecting pavilions, grouped casement windows with heavy mullions, a prominent chimney and parapet gables, a feature common between 1895 and 1915, particularly in the northeast. The white stucco walls and dark oak beams of the interior refer to another English medieval-derived style, Tudor Revival. 

A massive oak panel door separates the vestibule from the main interior space. A small circulation desk occupies the crossing while the north transept and west apse are lined with bookshelves. The main reading room is also lined with library stacks and highlighted by a brick fireplace on the east central wall surmounted by three commemorative plaques. The large central plaque was given by the members of the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment, in 1906, to commemorate the losses suffered by their ranks at the battle for Fort Carillon on July 8, 1758. The two other memorials that grace the Black Watch Memorial Library are two non-historic commemorative plaques dedicated to the men of Ticonderoga who lost their lives in World Wars I and II. Both war monuments were erected in the mid-twentieth century, in front of the building, thus placing them outside of the period of significance for the library. Several yards north of the library is the LaChute River, which runs parallel to the main street.

Black Watch Memorial Library, National Register of Historic Places. Accessed January 2nd 2021. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75312857.

Black Watch Memorial Library in Ticonderoga, Clinton, Essex, Franklin Library System. Accessed January 22nd 2021. https://cefls.org/libraries/ticonderoga/.