[2] It was constructed in 1889-92[2] and was designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge in the Richardsonian Romanesque style; George Warren Cole was the project supervisor.

[5][6][7] The trustees of the Haven inheritance secured a charter in 1882 for a public library, and they hired Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge of Boston to design it.

Cole also served as the supervisor of the Williams Memorial Institute and the Nathan Hale School.

The 1970 National Register of Historic Places nomination states that the building had not been altered with "one possible exception of an elevator" which seemed to date from the nineteenth century but "does not appear in the plans.

Further renovations increased the space for administrative offices and collections, concluding in March 2001.