Maria DeWolf Rogers was one of five children born to Colonel William and Charlotte DeWolf. William and his brother James DeWolf owned and operated a wharf on Thames Street, at the foot of State Street; and along with brothers John and Charles were successful “merchant princes” of Bristol’s late Colonial-early Federal eras.
Maria married Robert Rogers, son of Daniel and Ann Rogers of Newport on December 27, 1814. Robert was president of the Eagle Bank of Bristol and an avid collector of books. At the time of his death, his estate had an estimated value of over $1,300,000.00. After his death, Maria commissioned a public, or “free” library to be built and named for her husband, at a cost of $20,000. Boston architect, Stephen C. Earle designed the new library building in the then popular Richardsonian Romanesque style. Maria donated 4,000 volumes, amounting to half of his private library, plus another 1,200 new volumes that she purchased with her sister Charlotte DeWolf, and the new library building to the town of Bristol, and she gave the other half of his book collection to the Redwood Library, in Newport.
Originally, the library occupied the second floor of the new three-story building, while the first floor was rented to two banks, the income from which was to pay for maintenance and upkeep of the building. A fire on the evening of July 27, 1957, completely gutted the interior and roof, leaving only the brownstone shell. Wallis Howe, a local architect convinced the Town Council the shell could be reconfigured and the library could be rebuilt. Three years later, the library re-opened as a one-story building with mezzanine. An oil portrait of Maria, speculated to have been painted at the time of her marriage hangs today in the Rogers Free Library. A new addition to the library was completed in 2008.
Biography and image provided by Rei Battcher, Bristol Historical & Preservation Society
Built with Shorthand