Heginbotham House
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Holyoke Library (Heginbotham House)
1918–1920, Michael McEachern, builder. 539 S. Baxter St. (northeast corner of Jules St.) (NR)
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Holyoke Library (Heginbotham House) (Tom Noel)
This two-story Craftsman house, built for $75,000 and considered the finest in the region, is tapestry brick with half timbering, gable brackets, exposed rafters, a tile roof, a porte-cochère, and a matching garage. Extensive English-style gardens include a formal sunken walled garden, border gardens, a lily pond, a sun court, and trellis gateways.
Will E. Heginbotham presided over the Holyoke National Bank, the only one in the county to survive the Great Depression. He built the house and lived in it until his death in 1968. He served as Holyoke town clerk and city manager, manager of the Phillips County fair, and founder of the Melissa Memorial Hospital. A quiet, retiring man whose only hobby was gardening, he left his entire $4 million estate in trust for the improvement of the town of Holyoke and Phillips County. He donated his home for use as a library, which opened in 1976.
Interest on Heginbotham's estate has funded a $300,000 school auditorium, the Phillips County Historical Museum, at the southeast corner of Denver Street and Campbell Avenue, and other civic amenities. The town of Haxtun has received a $90,000 Olympic-sized swimming pool, a modern medical center, and various other improvements. Executors of the estate have also followed Heginbotham's directions to fence and maintain cemeteries and provide low-income housing, better health care, and recreation facilities throughout Phillips County.
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