Howland Cultural Center

The Howland Cultural Center, also known as Howland Library, is the former public library building of Beacon, New York, USA. It is located on Main Street (NY 52 Business) in the city's downtown section, near Fishkill Creek. It was designed in 1872 by Richard Morris Hunt, brother-in-law of Joseph Howland, a Beacon resident who had served as a Union Army officer in the Civil War and, afterwards, as New York State Treasurer. He was one of a committee of ten local benefactors who had joined to establish a library for their city, and commissioned Hunt for the job. It was one of the architect's earliest works; he would later design the base of the Statue of Liberty as well as the Fifth Avenue facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hunt's...