Hough Branch Library

History:

Hough Branch’s 1984 construction houses 11,800 square feet of materials and services. This second home for the Hough Branch building is a group of three octagons. The exterior of the building appears as a range of pointed “hats”. Inside, one of the “hats” tops the children’s story-telling area, another the main part of the library, and the third is the community room. The clerestory windows admit generous amounts of natural light.

The first Hough building, which opened in 1907, was inspired by Christopher Wren’s Orangery at Kensington Palace, England. In developing the design for the original Hough Branch, the architects used the arched entrance, window openings and the decorative brick work to pay homage to the Romanesque and Gothic Revival churches, houses and apartment buildings of the neighboring area.