Amos Barnes of Boston, Massachusetts, erected this neoGothic Revival building in memory of George W. Gates and his family. Gates, an engineer in charge of construction of the local Western Union Telegraph Company system and its supervisor from 1860 to 1884, was a highly respected and much loved member of the community. With its Tudor-arched, leaded, diamond-paned windows, the building became the permanent home of the village library in 1907. Before then, circulating books were kept on shelves in the office of the Freight Depot, in a private education facility, and at Smith's bakery. The Gates Library, together with the four other village libraries, forms the Hartford Cooperating Libraries, a unique institution of five independently owned and operated members that is the last remaining one of its kind in the United States.