Bridgewater is well known as being a weekend getaway for wealthy New Yorkers, due to its scenic wooded areas, location on the banks of Lake Lillinonah and proximity to New York City.

[3][4] The Bridgewater Country Fair is a popular annual event held every August, attracting visitors from all over New England and the Tri-state area.

[6] Bridgewater is located on the northeastern bank of the Housatonic River, on a section that is impounded to form Lake Lillinonah.

A bequest from William Dixon Burnham, a native who made his fortune in shipping, allowed a Greek Revival style building to be erected from 1925 to 1926, using Mine Hill granite from nearby Roxbury.

[13] Charles E. Piggott, a hermit, misanthrope, and miser living in a Los Angeles slum, died in 1973.

[13] Despite apparently having no discernible connection with Bridgewater, Piggott left the fund $300,000—money from careful investments over the years.

The state of California contested the will and the library hired a lawyer, at considerable cost, to defend the bequest.

[13] Burton Bernstein, a longtime town resident, looked into why Piggott would leave money to the library, then wrote an article on the bequest, which appeared in the December 18, 1978, issue of The New Yorker.

Piggott, as it turned out, had been a voracious reader on any number of subjects and loved public libraries (which are, after all, free).

Bernstein believes that Piggott came across Van Wyck Brooks' The Flowering of New England, which describes the hermit Henry David Thoreau.

"[13] Piggott heard of the Van Wyck Brooks Memorial Fund, recognized the name, and, Bernstein believes, decided to contribute.