Tunxis Library Merger

When the new Town Hall was built in 1890 on Main Street (where the fire station is now), Julia Brandegee’s Tunxis Free Library merged with the Farmington Library Co. from the town clerk’s office, once represented by the fearful librarian Tom Porter. Julia was named librarian, and her Tunxis Library contributed 1,500 books. The other, older Farmington Library Co. added several hundred of its most valued books. With the merger of the two libraries, Julia’s philosophy influenced the new entity. It became a free library like her Tunxis one, and books appealing to young people and women were purchased, as well as literature to feed readers’ minds.