As conveyed by the plaque in this marble-lined vestibule, the new library on Elmwood Avenue was created as a lasting memorial for Robert Brayton Knight (1826-1912) and Josephine Webster Knight (1829-1911) by their children. The Knight family were among Elmwood’s most prominent citizens. Between 1852 and 1890, Robert and his brother, Benjamin Brayton Knight (1813- 1898), established a cotton manufacturing empire. At the height of its success in 1890 the B B. & R. Knight's firm operated 21 mills in Rhode Island and Massachusetts and was one of the world’s largest cotton manufacturing enterprises. It created the ‘Fruit of the Loom’’ trademark, which still survives today as part of the Berkshire Hathaway group of companies. Two of Robert Knight’s sons, Webster Knight 1854-1933 and C. Prescott Knight 1856-1933, took over the firm after their father’s death, until it was sold in 1920.
Mrs Webster Knight had been an active supporter of the local Elmwood Public Library Association, which was established in 1915. When it outgrew its existing space in Greenwich Street by the early 1920s, the Elmwood Public Library Association and the Knight family came to an agreement that the new memorial library, when built, would become the Library Association’s next home. The project broke ground on September 28, 1922. The Knight family effectively loaned the building to the Association, paying for the building’s overheads and utilities through the generosity of the Knight family and an endowment fund created by a $125,000 bequest from Edith Webster Knight, Robert’s daughter and library supporter, who died in 1921. The library was dedicated and opened to the public in May 1924.
