The Library Vault

Part One – The Virginia Hatch Room

Not everyone was able to make the December presentation by the Eastern Connecticut Paranormal Society at Russell Library about their 2023 findings. For those who have been asking what happened, this post is the first in a series of what you missed — plus more information from your friendly Russell Librarians.

As the Head of the Youth and Family Learning Department, I thought I’d start with the Virginia Hatch Room. Also known as the Picture Book Room, the Virginia Hatch Room was built in 1983 as part of the bridge between the Old Church and the Old Bank. It has beautiful two-story tall windows overlooking the Courtyard, and a stained glass window from the Old Church that was relocated during renovations. The front of the room opens up onto the juvenile non-fiction stacks and current Youth & Family Learning public service desk. The back of the room ends in a wall with high windows and a long staircase going up to the Hubbard Room with two doors for access.

Over the years, library staff – including myself – have seen a woman in a long, dark dress walking through or bending over the low picture book bins in front of the courtyard windows. However, when we look again, the room is empty. One of our assistant directors once walked past the wall behind the public service desk, noting a librarian sitting at the desk and going through a card catalog. By the time the assistant director emerged on the other side of the wall, the librarian was gone – and the assistant director remembered that we haven’t used a card catalog in decades. So who or what did she see?

When the Eastern Connecticut Paranormal Society visited the Virginia Hatch Room, they found the spirit of one of our former directors: Laura. They identified Laura from her portrait after the investigation. Laura F. Philbrook served as Director of Russell Library from 1887 to 1917. The library’s founder and benefactor, Frances Russell, had died in 1884. Until that time, Frances had regularly supplied extra funds for the operation of the library. Her original endowment had not been enough to keep the library operating on a daily basis. With Frances’s death, Russell Library’s survival came into question.

Laura successfully persuaded the City of Middletown to begin supporting the library. They began with donating books for school children in the area in 1895. At the time, the library could only support two employees: the librarian and a custodian. By 1898, the City of Middletown’s financial contributions were enough for the library to hire a third employee, a library assistant. By the end of Laura’s tenure in 1917, Russell Library had grown to include two branches (one in Westfield and one in South Farms neighborhoods) and outreach to local schools.

When Laura retired in 1917, the land where the Virginia Hatch Room now sits belonged to a private residence next to the library. Even the Hubbard Room had not been built yet: Laura’s successor, Edna H. Wilder, worked toward the building of the Hubbard Room (first called the Children’s Library), but did not live to see its opening in 1930. So why would Laura’s spirit be in the Virginia Hatch Room today?

According to the ECPS investigators, spirits like Laura can roam freely as they wish. Spirits are not trapped. In Laura’s case, the investigators reported that she is a happy, benevolent spirit who spoke with them in a friendly manner. Perhaps, like some of our current librarians, she just really likes picture books.

Sources:
“History of Russell Library,” The Middletown Eye. https://middletowneyenews.blogspot.com/search/label/Russell%20Library%20history. Last accessed 12/18/2023.

Original research from library archives in The Middletown Room at Russell Library by Russell Librarians.