Westerly Library, designed by Longstaff and Hurd of Bridgeport, CT, in the style of an Italian palazzo and opened in 1894, was created as a memorial to Civil War soldiers and was the first and largest memorial in the park. Built of yellow brick with a red clay roof and Westerly granite details in the foundation, window trim, and other building features, it arose after Stephen Wilcox pledged half the money for the land and the library to commemorate the volunteer soldiers and sailors of Westerly and vicinity in maintaining the Union from 1861 to 1865, while the community donated the remaining $50,000. This effort led to the formation of the Memorial and Library Association of Westerly in 1892, which still owns the library and park as a private non-for-profit. The library served as a living memorial for the Grand Army of the Republic and included reading and writing rooms, a gymnasium, a bowling alley, showers, and an auditorium. Wilcox, a Westerly-born industrialist-inventor who earned the first of nearly 50 patents at age 23 and, with his childhood friend George H. Babcock, invented a safer, larger-capacity steam boiler used for electricity generation, warships, and factories, died before the building was completed. The library later received three additions: a rear addition donated by Harriet (Hoxie) Wilcox to house the Wilcoxes' art collection, a right-side addition donated by her nephew William D. Hoxie for the first children's room and the Hoxie gallery, and a four-story curved rear addition that doubled the library's size. The library is funded through its endowment, the towns of Stonington, CT, and Westerly, RI, and the generosity of donors.