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LANCE KASPARIAN A.I.A.

33 Lexington Avenue, Bradford, Massachusetts 01835

Email: LKA01@comcast.net Mobile: 978-745-5975

February 10, 2022

Mayor Ruthanne Fuller

City of Newton

1000 Commonwealth Avenue

Newton Centre, MA 02459

Rfuller@NewtonMA.gov

RE: Newton Senior Center/ former Newtonville Branch Library

Dear Mayor Fuller:

I understand that the City of Newton is developing plans for a new Senior Center on the site of

its current facility – the former Newtonville Branch Library (1938-39). As a director of the Charles

J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation, I’m interested in the disposition of two stained glass works in

this building, as well as their original architectural setting and historical context. As you may know,

these works were a gift to the City of Newton in 1939 by the American stained glass artist and

writer Charles Jay Connick (1875-1945), a long-time Newtonville resident.

In one of these works, located on the south façade of the building overlooking Walnut Place,

Connick depicted the 1914 poem, “Mending Wall,” by his long-time friend, the American poet

Robert Frost. Interestingly, during the 1950s several recordings were made of Frost “saying” this

poem. Long before that however, he “said” this poem at the dedication of the library in December

of 1939, while standing in the south reading room before Connick’s glass work and an audience of

400. Today, Frost’s poem and Connick’s work are still vital, resonating with contemporary debates

about international borders and immigration policy, perhaps as much as with ongoing deliberations

about the Senior Center and the historic Newtonville Branch Library building.

In the north façade overlooking Highland Avenue, Connick depicted the 1873 poem, “There is

no Frigate like a Book” by Emily Dickinson, who is today considered a proto-modernist poet and

perhaps “the greatest woman poet in the English language.” In the cool light of the former north

reading room, this panel displays the opening lines of Dickinson’s poem in an abstract linear

pattern of whirling banners and sails, which fittingly herald the power of the book and human

imagination throughout the vaulted interior of the “streamlined” Colonial reading room.

These works are among the most significant of Connick’s later career, illustrating a style which

is distinct from his better known body of ecclesiastical work. They reflect his personal

commitments to the Newtonville community and his friendships with the architect of the library, E.

Donald Robb (1880-1942) - who was also a long-time Newtonville resident - and the American poet

Robert Frost. Aside from this, they reveal Connick’s grasp of contemporary design trends in the U.S.

and abroad. In 1925, Connick visited the International Exposition of Modern Decorative & Industrial

Art in Paris as a delegate to a special commission of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. In the

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following year his observations on the architectural glass manufacturing section of the exhibition

were included in a report to the Secretary, along with a special appendix in which he discussed in

detail the contemporary stained glass seen throughout the exhibition. Connick’s contributions to

this report provide important insight into the evolution of his work during the 1930s, but the

report as a whole also sheds light on the forward thinking spirit of the period and the details of

Robb’s architectural design for the library.

Especially notable is the fact that the library building was funded by local subscription with

major financial support from the New Deal era Public Works Administration. Although research

about Connick’s Newtonville Library commission is only in its early stages, it appears that Robb’s

architectural design, with its integral stained glass work by Charles Connick, is a vivid expression of

the New Deal era, when the work promulgated by the supervising Architect of the U.S. Department

of Treasury was said to be “freer, bolder, with a sort of wisely conservative experimental quality,”

while continuing to respect regional tradition. (Lee, Architects to the Nation, 2000: 260.)

Certainly the Newtonville Branch Library building has a distinguished pedigree rooted in

enduring local civic commitment, the notable careers of its local architect and stained glass artist,

and the history of economic and social progress and architectural design during the New Deal era.

As the City of Newton deliberates on the fate of this historic building, I hope that this legacy will be

recognized and preserved. It would be a shame if major capital investments and cultural

expressions such as this were to be readily dismissed as obsolete and disposed of every eighty

years.

Respectfully,

Lance Kasparian

cc:

CityCouncil@NewtonMA.gov

Vbirmingham@NewtonMA.gov

Jmorse@NewtonMA.gov