South Britain Library

Cool Britannia
South Britain Library, Southbury
June 2025

My plans for every annual Connecticut Open House Day is to go to the places that I may not typically be able to get into. The South Britain Library is one such place.

Not that it’s not open to public, for it is. But I don’t think I’ll find myself in Southbury between 5 and 7 on a Tuesday evening (per the website in 2026) anytime soon. This isn’t a museum, but it isn’t a normal library either.

What it is is a small, attractive, one story historic Shingle Style structure. The Library is now maintained by the Historic Buildings Commission and operated by the Southbury Historical Society as a local history and genealogy research center. It is one of the few preserved historic libraries in the state.

And normal books are still borrowed here like a normal library too. But since this is called the South Britain Library, and you are likely unfamiliar with where and what South Britain is, let’s address that.

South Britain is a village in Southbury and was settled in the early 18th century, providing services to support the surrounding agricultural community. A dam at the rapids of the Pomperaug River supplied water power for a variety of milling operations. Industrial activities increased during the 18th century and the first half of the 19th, but declined after the Civil War.

Today, it’s the “cute” historic district part of Southbury with a bunch of attractive buildings and churches. It is also fairly isolated from the rest of town (despite being just off of I-84). This isolation was in evidence after my visit to this library, as a recent flood destroyed some bridges and I had to drive a long way north to loop around to come back down into Southbury proper.

Okay, let’s get to the library. I rolled up and was greeted by two people hanging out inside. The Southbury Historical Society volunteers preserve and care for the books, though the guy admitted that climate control wasn’t the greatest here. I was – and am – still a little confused at the collection here. Sure, the genealogy and historical stuff make sense, but there are some newer books and what appears to be a very random assortment of random books from random decades.

This little place was the town’s only library from 1904 to about 1969. And it was private. After a couple moves, Southbury is now served by a proper library that opened in 2005.

The building, and its contents to a degree, were intentionally preserved as a time capsule. They’ve retained the card catalogues we all grew up with and the books here still have the little sign-out cards for borrowers to fill out.

There are shelves with fragile, older books that are not for circulation, the majority of the books here can certainly be checked out. Think of it as a wing of the town’s public library that just happens to be several miles distant.

This is definitely a unique place with a special feel once you’re inside. Which I’m happy to be able to say that I have.